California Legal Brief

The Rule of In re A.T. et al. is that juvenile courts may not assert jurisdiction under section 300(e) over a child who is over five years old at the time of the jurisdictional hearing, under circumstances where the child suffered severe physical abuse before turning five but had reached age five or older by the time of the hearing.

Appeal from judgment after contested jurisdiction/disposition hearing in Superior Court, San Bernardino County.

Defendant Appellant was R.G. — the legal guardian who was alleged to have severely physically abused one of the children through willful starvation.

Plaintiff Respondent was San Bernardino County Children and Family Services — the child protective agency that filed dependency petitions.

The suit sounded in juvenile dependency proceedings under Welfare and Institutions Code section 300. The case involved allegations under multiple subdivisions including (a) serious physical harm, (b) failure to protect, (e) severe physical abuse of child under five, (g) inability to provide support, and (j) abuse of sibling.

The key substantive facts leading to the suit were that A.T., then four years old, was observed by bystanders at a mall with swollen eyes, purple cheeks, visible ribs, and facial bruises, leading to police intervention and hospitalization where A.T. was diagnosed as severely malnourished with cuts and bruising consistent with physical abuse.

The procedural result leading to the Appeal: The trial court sustained section 300(e) allegations against both children at a hearing held when A.T. was five years old and R.T. was six years old, ruling that severe physical abuse of A.T. when he was under five supported jurisdiction under section 300(e) regardless of his age at the jurisdictional hearing.

The key question(s) on Appeal: 1) Whether juvenile courts may assert jurisdiction under section 300(e) over a child who is over five years old at the time of the jurisdictional hearing, even if the severe physical abuse occurred when the child was under five; 2) Whether section 300(e) applies to a child who did not suffer severe physical abuse.

The Appellate Court held that section 300(e) requires the child to be under five years old at the time of the jurisdictional hearing, not merely at the time the abuse occurred, and reversed both (e) findings because A.T. was five at the hearing and R.T. did not suffer severe physical abuse.

The case is inapplicable when the child is still under five years old at the time of the jurisdictional hearing, or when other subdivisions of section 300 provide grounds for jurisdiction over children five and older who suffered abuse.

The case leaves open whether other subdivisions of section 300 would support jurisdiction over children who suffered severe physical abuse before age five but are over five at the jurisdictional hearing, and what constitutes "severe physical abuse" in borderline cases.