Case Summaries

Family Law

[02/08] DG v. DeVaughn
In a class action against the Oklahoma Department of Human Services claiming that the department's agency-wide foster care policies and practices exposed all class members to an impermissible risk of harm, the district court's order certifying a class is affirmed where: 1) plaintiffs presented more than conclusory statements that defendants' agency-wide monitoring policies and practices, or lack thereof, created a risk of harm shared by the entire class; 2) due to the common risk of harm and the common underlying legal theory for asserting that risk, the district court acted within its discretion to find that typicality was satisfied; and 3) the injunction sought by plaintiffs applied to the proposed class as a whole without requiring differentiation between class members.

[02/05] In re Koehler
In an attorney's petition for a writ challenging a trial court's order of contempt on attorney arising from divorce proceedings, attorney's petition is treated as one for prohibition and granted, and the order of contempt is reversed and annulled as the requisite procedures were not followed and the applicable law was not applied.

[02/04] In re J.N.
Juveniles court's judgment ordering three minor children returned home to the care and custody of their mother on a case plan of family maintenance services, and removal from the physical custody of their father on a case plan of family reunification services, is reversed where: 1) the evidence was not sufficient to establish that the children were at substantial risk of serious physical injury as the result of parental inability to adequately supervise or protect the child; and 2) the evidence did not support a finding that each child was within the jurisdiction of the juvenile court under section 300(b).

[01/28] Biscaro v. Stern
In an action for dissolution of marriage, trial court's issuance of a restraining order against defendant and an entry of default judgment awarding a condominium to his former wife as her separate property is reversed and remanded where: 1) the court erred in awarding the condominium as wife's separate property because it granted greater relief than she had requested in her petitions for dissolution; and 2) it was reversible error for the court not to rule on defendant's request for accommodation.

[01/27] In re G.M.
Juvenile court's order terminating the parental rights of a mother to two of her children is affirmed as: 1) although evidence of a legal impediment to adoption by an identified prospective adoptive parent is relevant and therefore admissible when a social worker's opinion that a child is likely to be adopted is based in part on the the prospective adoptive patent's willingness to adopt; 2) on the record, the trial court neither barred such evidence nor was compelled to consider whether there was or could be a legal impediment to adoption by the children's prospective adoptive parent in evaluating whether it was likely the children would be adopted.

[01/14] Arthur v. Arthur
In a dissolution of marriage action, judgment of the trial court permitting the wife to relocate after twenty months is vacated where, the petition for relocation should have been denied as a best interests determination in petitions for relocation must be made at the time of the final hearing and must be supported by competent, substantial evidence.

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