Foster Parents Embroiled in Dispute Allowed to Keep Baby : Ruling: Superior Court judge notes, however, that they must honor contract with nonprofit Santa Ana agency that has final authority over infant’s care.

A fragile infant boy will be allowed to stay with his foster parents as long as they abide by their contract with a nonprofit agency that has ultimate authority in determining proper care for the child, a Superior Court judge ruled Tuesday.

Orange County Superior Court Judge William F. McDonald, saying he believes that both sides have the child’s best interests in mind, ordered the foster parents and agency officials to sit down with a mediator to help resolve friction between them over the baby’s care.

The dispute moved to the court earlier this month when Patrick D. Wranik and Patricia C. Fanno filed a writ seeking to block Holy Family Services, Counseling and Adoption of Santa Ana from removing the baby from their home, saying they could best offer the daily care and love the foster baby needs.

The couple contend in legal documents that the 3-month-old boy they took into their home the day after his birth Jan. 12 may have been exposed to drugs while in the womb. As a result, they contend, the infant panics, suffers from high blood pressure and hyperventilates when he is separated from them for even brief periods. The couple, through their attorney, said that they are not currently interested in adopting the boy but want to make sure his gradual recovery and development is not hurt by an unnecessary move.

During a court hearing Tuesday, the agency’s attorney, Michael F. Kanne, said that officials were seeking removal of the child from the foster home because of a “total breakdown of the cooperative relationship” with the couple. Among the disputes is which pediatrician the child should be seeing.

The couple’s attorney, Robert R. Walmsley, told the judge that the child has been progressing under the medical care he has been receiving and said that the agency failed to properly involve the foster parents in creating a treatment plan for the child.

The judge said he expects both sides to live up to their contract but stressed that the state-licensed agency has the authority to decide such issues as which doctor should be treating the child.

“They call the shots, and you have to accept that,” he told the couple.

The judge also ordered the case to remain under the jurisdiction of the court for the time being.