skip to Main Content
Name: In re A.R.
Case #: A131535
Court: CA Court of Appeal
District 1 DCA
Division: 5
Opinion Date: 02/27/2012
Summary

Juvenile court had no jurisdiction to order sibling visitation to be paid for by father where dependency petition over father’s child was dismissed. Minors Ashley and Ashton were the subject of dependency petitions. Appellant James is the father of only Ashton. The juvenile court found “not true” all allegations regarding Ashton and his petition was dismissed. The juvenile court ordered supervised visitation between the minors and ordered James to facilitate and pay for those supervised visits. James argued on appeal that because he was not Ashley’s parent, and because the court dismissed Ashton’s petition without adjudging him a dependent child, the court lacked jurisdiction over James and Ashton. The appellate court agreed and reversed the visitation order. The court had no jurisdiction over either James or Ashton. Further, there is no statutory provision requiring sibling visitation in these circumstances. Section 361.2(i) was not applicable because Ashton was not under the court’s jurisdiction at the time of Ashley’s jurisdictional hearing.