Guardianship of Riley

DESMOND, P. J.

Josephine Hawks, guardian of the minor, June Clyde Riley, appeals from “(a) The Judgment and Order Removing Guardian, Revoking Letters of Guardianship, Terminating Guardianship and Restoring Custody of Child to Mother; (b) The Judgment and Order Vacating, Annulling and Setting Aside Order Appointing Guardian, and Revoking Letters of Guardianship.”

On November 23, 1943, appellant was appointed by Honorable Thomas C. Gould, Judge of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, guardian of the person of June, then aged seven years and having no estate. The appointment was made with the consent of June’s mother, Era Blocker Riley, because she and the child wished that June might attend the Thirty-Second Street School in the city of Los Angeles. Mrs. Riley had been unable to find living quarters near that school. Appellant, who lived in that particular school district, had known June and her mother in Oklahoma prior to her marriage to Raymond Riley, the present stepfather of the child. She had become interested in June because of her precocity and offered to let the little girl live with her so she could attend the Thirty-Second Street School. Mrs. Riley testified that prior to her signing the consent and nomination of the appellant, the latter had said that such action “would be better for her to enroll June in school; that she didn’t have authority to do that; that it would be no different, it was just a paper that she could take June to school and enroll her in school.”

Approximately four months later and on March 16, 1944, Mrs. Riley sought the removal of appellant and in her petition alleged that the guardian was

“incapable of suitably performing her duties as guardian”

because she was not related to the minor by blood or marriage, she was an unmarried woman approximately 48 years of age, that she did not own a home or real property, tha't she had no regular or steady source of income and that no financial advantage was to be gained by her acting as guardian. The petition further alleged that at

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the time the mother consented to the appointment she was unrepresented by counsel and had no “comprehension or understanding of the legal consequences of such act, and was acting' under a mistake of law and fact as to the purport of her consent and of the appointment of Josephine Hawks as Guardian of the person of said child.” The prayer merely asked that “Josephine Hawks be removed as the Guardian of the person of the minor herein.” Simultaneously with the filing of this petition for removal, another petition [not included in the record] was filed by the aunt and uncle of the minor, Mr. and Mrs. Louie Blocker, asking that they be appointed guardians in the place of Miss Hawks, which request was accompanied by a consent signed by the mother. These two petitions, together with objections thereto, came on for hearing before Judge John Beardsley, and on April 12, 1944, he rendered judgment in favor of the guardian, the judgment reading, in part, that the mother “take nothing against Josephine Hawks, Guardian for said minor June Clyde Riley, by her petition for removal of said guardian, and that said petition be and the same is hereby denied.” The court also, at the same time, dismissed the petition of Louie and Dorothy Blocker. No findings were made in these proceedings, the same having been waived by all parties. Almost immediately thereafter and in the month of April, appellant removed June from Los Angeles County and placed her in a school at Ojai, and in the following month of August petitioned the court for an order authorizing her to remove her ward to the State of Vermont for the purpose of attending the Hickory Ridge School at Putney. This petition came on for hearing simultaneously with two filed by Mrs. Riley, one asking the court to vacate the order by which appellant was appointed, the other seeking her removal as guardian.