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Name: In re Noah G.
Case #: B268442
Court: CA Court of Appeal
District 2 DCA
Division: 5
Opinion Date: 06/06/2016
Summary

Parental rights termination was affirmed where mother’s beneficial relationship with the minors did not outweigh the benefits of a permanent home. Following termination of her parental rights, mother argued on appeal that the juvenile court should have applied the beneficial parent child relationship exception to adoption. The court rejected the argument finding that no error occurred under any of the standards of review adopted by the different appellate courts. It was undisputed that mother visited the children daily and helped the maternal grandmother care for them. The children were bonded with mother. However, mother failed to show her beneficial relationship with the children would outweigh the well-being they would gain in a permanent home with grandmother. Mother did not occupy a parental role such that termination of her parental rights would be detrimental to the children. Further, the juvenile court properly focused on mother’s unresolved substance addiction issues. Mother admitted at the 366.26 hearing that she had not started her drug treatment program. Mother’s reliance on In re S.B. (2008) 164 Cal.App.4th 289, 298-301, is misplaced. The S.B. opinion must be viewed in light of its particular facts. (In re Jason J. (2009) 175 Cal.App.4th 922, 937.) It does not stand for the proposition that a termination order is subject to reversal whenever there is “some measure of benefit” to continued contact between parent and child.