In re Andrew C.

Syllabus

The intervening foster parents and the minor child separately appealed from the judgment of the trial court granting the motion of the respondent father to open and vacate the court's judgment granting the foster parents' motion to transfer guardianship of the minor child to themselves. They claimed, inter alia, that the trial court erred in retroactively applying In re Ryan C. (220 Conn. App. 507), in which this court explained that the right of a foster parent to intervene in neglect proceedings is limited by statute (§ 46b-129 (p)) to the right to be heard, to its determination that the foster parents did not have the right to intervene. Held: The trial court properly granted the respondent father's motion to open and vacate the guardianship judgment, as the foster parents' lack of standing to intervene in this action and, thus, the court's lack of subject matter jurisdiction to adjudicate their motion to transfer guardianship of the minor child, was so entirely obvious that the court's judgment granting the motion to transfer guardianship was void ab initio. Argued September 4—officially released November 4, 2024