California Supreme And Appellate Court
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Health Law Case Summaries

■ San Diego County Health and Human Serv. Div. v. Amanda B.,D053732

I.

INTRODUCTION

            Conservatee Amanda B. appeals from a postjudgment order denying her petition for a rehearing on her status as a conservatee and denying her request to modify the disabilities that the trial court imposed as part of the judgment reestablishing Amanda's conservatorship.  After the court reestablished Amanda's conservatorship and imposed a number of special disabilities on Amanda, she filed two petitions for rehearing, one in which she sought to challenge her status as a conservatee, and another in which she challenged the trial court's imposition of special disabilities pursuant to Welfare and Institutions Code[1] section 5357, including the court's decision to deny her (1) "[t]he privilege of possessing a license to operate a motor vehicle," (2) the right to contract, and (3) the right to refuse or consent to medical treatment.  (See § 5357, subds. (a), (b), (d) and (e).)  The trial court denied Amanda's petition for a rehearing on her status as a conservatee, but held a hearing on the issue of the special disabilities.  After the hearing, the trial court denied Amanda's request to remove the special disabilities.

            On appeal, Amanda contends that there is insufficient evidence to support the trial court's denial of her request to be allowed to have a driver's license, to enter into contracts, and to make her own medical decisions.  She further contends that the trial court erred in denying her petition for a rehearing on her status as a conservatee on the ground that she had not waited six months from the time of the establishment of her conservatorship to file the petition.

            We conclude that there is substantial evidence to support the trial court's order denying Amanda's request for modification, and affirm that portion of the order.  However, we reverse the court's order insofar as it denies on procedural grounds Amanda's petition for rehearing regarding her status as a conservatee.

III.

DISCUSSION

A.        The court should have considered Amanda's petition for rehearing as to 
              her status as a conservatee on the merits

            The trial court denied Amanda's petition for a rehearing on the issue of her status as a conservatee on the ground that she filed the petition before six months had elapsed since the conservatorship was established.  In ruling on Amanda's section 5364 petition, the trial court relied on Henreid, supra, 59 Cal.App.3d 552, in which the court interpreted section 5364 to require that a conservatee wait six months after the imposition of the conservatorship before filing a petition to challenge the status of a conservatorship.

■ HELD:

In a conservatorship action, postjudgment order denying defendant's petition for a rehearing on her status as a conservatee is reversed and remanded where the court erred in denying defendant's petition for rehearing as to her status as a conservatee and not considering the petition on the merits as the court relied on an unreasonable interpretation of Welfare and Institutions Code sec. 5364.

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