Parent ‘Divorce’ Interim Deal OKd : Jurisprudence: Father of boys seeking permanent separation temporarily surrenders custody to younger child’s mother.

The father of two Orange County boys suing to “divorce” their parents has agreed to temporarily surrender custody of the youngsters, the boys’ lawyers said Friday.

Richard C. Gilbert, one of two attorneys representing the boys, aged 11 and 15, said the father had agreed to let them live with the younger boy’s birth mother.

Earlier this week, the 11-year-old boy filed an action in his parents’ divorce case, requesting separation and alleging that he had been physically and emotionally abused all his life.

The next day, his 15-year-old adoptive brother filed a separate lawsuit to end his relationship with his father and stepmother, alleging that they constantly beat and mistreat him.

Their application to divorce their parents is the first of its kind in California, the boys’ attorneys say.

The-15 year-old boy is the natural son of the father, described by Gilbert as a 42-year-old unemployed Orange County man. The 11-year-old was adopted at age 2 by the father and his present wife, who are in the process of getting a divorce.

Dressed in tennis shoes, faded jeans and pink shirts, the two boys were present Friday at the Juvenile Justice Center in Orange, but were not required to make a courtroom appearance.

In court, Diane Marlowe, another of their attorneys, sought to get Family Court Commissioner Richard G. Vogl to sign an order prohibiting the father, who now lives in Landers, from moving the boys out of Orange County. In light of the father’s decision to allow the boys to live with the younger boy’s mother, the commissioner said such action was not necessary.

Despite the judge’s denial, Gilbert said later that he was happy with the decision.

The legal actions by the local youngsters come two months after the 5th District Court of Appeal in Florida ruled in a widely publicized case that a 13-year-old boy had no legal right to divorce his biological mother, because he is a minor. That ruling is being appealed. Similar lawsuits have been filed by children in Arizona, South Carolina and Michigan.

The Orange County boys’ attorneys want to consolidate their two separate court actions in a new lawsuit that will seek to have the 11-year-old’s mother become their permanent legal guardian, Gilbert said.

“But the boys don’t (merely) want a guardianship. They want a divorce,” Gilbert said.

Gilbert said he plans to prove that it would be wrong “to continue the parent-child relationship” with the boys’ father because “there is clear and convincing evidence of abuse.”