In Re Christina A.
ELIA, J.
Rebecca A. appeals juvenile court dispositional and permanency planning orders relative to her three children, Christina, Robert and Paul A. She contends on appeal that
Barely a month after their previous dependency status had been dismissed, Christina, Robert and Paul were taken into protective custody on May 25, 1987, when appellant was arrested. On May 27, petitions were filed alleging that Robert, Paul and Christina came under the provisions of
A jurisdictional hearing was held on October 7, 1987. Appellant admitted the allegations of the amended
The Santa Clara County Department of Social Services (DSS), petitioner, requested that appellant be evaluated to determine whether reunification services should be bypassed, pursuant to
A permanency planning hearing was held on April 19, 1988, and a permanent plan of guardianship was made for all three children. This appeal ensued.
(1a)
Former
In 1983, however, the Legislature amended
Appellant would have us reject the amendment and the obvious intent it embodies in favor of the more stringent definition it replaced. This is not the function of an appellate court, and we decline to do so.
Appellant argues, however, that if we reject this definition the statutes are unconstitutionally vague because their meaning must be guessed at and is inherently subjective.
(2) Life, liberty and property may not be taken by virtue of a statute whose terms are so vague that “men of common intelligence must necessarily guess at its meaning and differ as to its application....” (Connally v. General Const. Co. (1926) 269 U.S. 385, 391 [70 L.Ed. 322, 328, 46 S.Ct. 126].) Vagueness occurs “when a legislature states its proscriptions in terms so indefinite that the line between innocent and condemned conduct becomes a matter of guesswork. This indefiniteness runs afoul of due process concepts which require that persons be given fair notice of what to avoid, and that the discretion of law enforcement officials, with the attendant dangers of arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement, be limited by explicit legislative standards.” (Tribe, American Constitutional Law (2d ed. 1988) § 12-31 at p. 1033; see also § 10-8 at p. 683.)
Appellant has failed to examine, however, whether there is a constitutionally protected interest at stake here to which her claim of vagueness would apply. Dependency proceedings are not criminal in nature, nor do they involve deprivation of parental rights. There is no question here of appellant‘s having sufficient notice of the “proscribed conduct” (mental disability) so as to avoid it. Nor does this statute impinge on sensitive areas of basic freedoms so as to inhibit their exercise. (See Grayned v. City of Rockford (1972) 408 U.S. 104, 109 [33 L.Ed.2d 222, 228, 92 S.Ct. 2294].) Neither is there an issue of custody at this juncture, since appellant‘s children were taken into protective custody before the dependency petitions were filed and had not been returned to her since these proceedings had commenced.
The requirements of due process “apply only to the deprivation of interests encompassed by the Fourteenth Amendment‘s protection of liberty and property.” (Board of Regents v. Roth (1972) 408 U.S. 564, 569 [33 L.Ed.2d 548, 556, 92 S.Ct. 2701].) Appellant‘s only conceivable argument is that she has a constitutionally protected interest in receiving reunification services. But if this is a property right to a “benefit,” as in Goldberg v. Kelly (1970) 397 U.S. 254 [25 L.Ed.2d 287, 90 S.Ct. 1011], she must show more than a desire or an expectation of the benefit; she must show an entitlement to it.
(1b) Appellant‘s vagueness claim is essentially an argument that the statute gives insufficient guidelines to those charged with its enforcement to ensure that they will correctly discriminate between those parents to whom it should apply and those to whom it should not. This is a procedural due process argument.
Examined as such, we are satisfied the statute adequately protects against the kind of arbitrary enforcement which a claim of vagueness envisions. Appellant was notified, pursuant to
(3) Viewed as an equal protection claim, appellant‘s argument is that the classification of parents with dependent children into those provided with reunification services and those to whom such services are not extended, is invidious and discriminatory. The equal protection clause requires some rationality in the nature of the class singled out and requires that the distinctions drawn have “`some relevance to the purpose for which the classification is made.‘” [Citations.] (Rinaldi v. Yeager (1966) 384 U.S. 305, 309 [16 L.Ed.2d 577, 580, 86 S.Ct. 1497].)
We perceive no improper purpose underlying the statute. The stated purpose of
It is apparent that
Having concluded the statute is constitutional, we proceed to examine appellant‘s final argument, that there is insufficient evidence to suppport a finding that she came within the statute‘s purview.
(4) We will affirm a trial court‘s finding if there is any substantial evidence to support it. (In re Angelia P. (1981) 28 Cal.3d 908, 924 [171 Cal. Rptr. 637, 623 P.2d 198].) In reviewing the claim, we must examine the entire record in the light most favorable to the court‘s orders to determine if it discloses evidence which is “reasonable, credible and of solid value” (ibid.) which would allow a reasonable trier of fact to find that the statute applied. On the record before us, we have no difficulty sustaining this finding.
(5) Dr. Liu, a board certified psychiatrist with some additional expertise in alcohol abuse, testified that appellant suffered from episodic alcoholism and had a borderline personality disorder. He opined that appellant was in an early stage of denial as to her alcoholism and there was a “great possibility” appellant would have drinking episodes again, with their attendant potential for violence and for trauma to the children. He testified that
The written assessment of Walter Saunders, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist, was introduced into evidence. He diagnosed appellant as suffering from episodic alcohol dependence and a mixed personality disorder with histrionic, narcissistic and borderline features. He described the symptoms of this disorder in much the same terms as Dr. Liu. As to treatment, he opined that it would take a minimum of six months to one year in a structured chemical dependency setting. Even with such treatment, appellant‘s prognosis was poor: “Any improvement in her prognosis would demand at least one to three years of continued abstinence coupled with inpatient and continued outpatient counseling and participation in self[-]help groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous.” In his opinion, appellant was unable to parent her children and would continue to be unable to do so “for the next one to three years.” In the meantime, appellant represented a “significant danger to their physical and emotional well being.”
Appellant presented no contrary testimony. We are satisfied that this record discloses reasonable, credible evidence from competent mental health professionals from which the trial court could have found that appellant came within the purview of
The orders are affirmed.
Capaccioli, Acting P.J., and Premo, J., concurred.