In Re Conrich

221 Cal.App.2d 662 (1963) In re JAMES CLARK CONRICH, a Minor. RUTH THOMAS, as Deputy County Probation Officer, etc., Petitioner and Respondent,

v.

ZENE V. JASAITIS et al., Objectors and Appellants.

Civ. No. 20993. California Court of Appeals. First Dist., Div. Three.

Oct. 30, 1963. Robson, Malott & Pedder and Arthur Lyle Robson for Objectors and Appellants.

John A. Nejedly, District Attorney, and Stanley K. Dodson, Deputy District Attorney, for Petitioner and Respondent.

DEVINE, J.

This is an appeal from an order declaring a minor child free from the custody and control of both of his parents. The appeal is by the natural parents and by Mr. and Mrs. Jasaitis, one of two sets of prospective adoptive parents, all appellants being represented by the same attorney.

The child was born on August 5, 1960. The parents were not then married, but they did marry on October 11, 1960, in Las Vegas, Nevada. A private adoption was planned by parties named Rasmussen, acting through Mr. Robson, an attorney, and the Rasmussens took the baby into their home for one or two days. They were uneasy, however, about a conversation which Mrs. Rasmussen had with the father, who asked for money and for pictures of the child as he would grow up. They took the baby to the Probation Department of Contra Costa County. That department placed the child in a foster home and petitioned the court to declare the child a ward of the juvenile court. Petition was granted on September 12, 1960. Mr. Robson appeared in court, stating that another family, named Jasaitis, wished to adopt the child. An order was made for $75 a month support by the county. The child has been continuously in the foster home. He has not been supported in whole or in part by his parents at any time, nor has he been visited by them, nor has there been any contact by letters, Christmas or birthday cards, or in any other way.

A probation officer asked the father, at about the time of the wardship order in September 1960, for the whereabouts of the mother, but he refused to tell. He said that the mother [664] had wished to keep the child, but that he felt this was not in the child's interest, because the mother was going to have to go to work, and that he did not intend to marry her. On October 28, 1960, the mother signed a consent to adoption by Mr. and Mrs. Jasaitis, but there was no consent by the father, and by that time the two had married.