At a 366.26 hearing, the court found that termination of parental rights would not be detrimental to the minor children, but that the minors were difficult to place. It identified adoption as the permanent placement goal, but continued the permanency hearing for 180 days to allow for efforts to be made to locate an adoptive family. Mother appealed from the orders made at the hearing. The appellate court found that the orders were only interim, and thus not appealable. The court rejected the contrary holding in In re Edward H. (1996) 43 Cal.App. 4th 584, finding that it failed to address the assertion that any findings made at the first of a two-phase section 366.26 hearing are necessarily interlocutory. Here, the court did not make a ruling as to a permanent plan, but only identified a goal, and continued the hearing. Because the hearing hasn’t been concluded, there is nothing to appeal.
Case Summaries