In re E.W.

Filed 7/29/19 CERTIFIED FOR PUBLICATION

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

SECOND APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION EIGHT

In re E.W., a Person Coming Under B295083 the Juvenile Court Law. (Los Angeles County LOS ANGELES COUNTY Super. Ct. No. 18CCJP05284) DEPARTMENT OF CHILDREN AND FAMILY SERVICES,

Plaintiff and Respondent,

v.

F.D.,

Defendant and Appellant.

APPEAL from orders of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County. Kristen Byrdsong, Juvenile Court Referee. Affirmed. Nicole Williams, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant. Mary C. Wickham, County Counsel, Kristine P. Miles, Assistant County Counsel, and Stephanie Jo Reagan, Principal Deputy County Counsel, for Plaintiff and Respondent. __________________________

The mother in this dependency case, F.D., appeals from the court’s orders declaring her son, E.W., a dependent of the court; removing the child from the care, custody and control of the mother; releasing the child to the home of the father; terminating jurisdiction with a custody order awarding the father sole legal and physical custody; and ordering that the mother have no visitation with the child. We need not recite the circumstances that led to the court’s orders or the evidence that supports the orders. Mother’s sole claim on appeal is that, under the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act (UCCJEA; Fam. Code, § 3400 et seq.),1 the court had no jurisdiction to make the orders. Mother is mistaken. Mother and father are divorced. Mother lives in South Carolina and father resides in Los Angeles. Under a Family Law Order issued in California dated January 2, 2014, the parents shared joint legal custody of E.W. The child lived with mother in South Carolina and, among other visitation arrangements, spent nine weeks during the summers with his father in Los Angeles. The circumstances precipitating the removal of the child from his mother (allegations of physical abuse) were disclosed by the child shortly before he was to return to South Carolina in August 2018, when he was 13 years old. At the detention hearing on August 21, 2018, mother’s counsel told the court “there may be a UCCJEA issue here,” because “the child resided in South Carolina between 2014 to the present.” Father’s counsel observed there was no UCCJEA issue, because the Orange County court issued the January 2, 2014 Family Law Order; there was no other order by any other state;