Adoption of Bergna CA6

Filed 11/6/14 Adoption of Bergna CA6 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 8.1115(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

SIXTH APPELLATE DISTRICT

Adoption of PETER MATTHEW H039049 BERGNA, (Santa Clara County Super. Ct. No. 1-54-AD-90531) Plaintiff and Appellant,

v.

SUPERIOR COURT OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY,

Defendant and Respondent.

Appellant Peter Matthew Bergna filed a request with the Santa Clara County Superior Court “to look at or copy” his adoption file and to receive a certified copy of his original birth certificate. The trial court denied his request. On appeal, appellant contends that the trial court erred when it denied his request for his original birth certificate. He argues that his original birth certificate is a “vital primary source of personal [i]dentification[] necessary to obtain other forms of [i]dentification such as [a] Social Security [c]ard or a Passport.” Appellant’s notice of appeal also attaches an order that denies his request to obtain his adoption file, but he does not argue that the court erred when it denied this request. Therefore, we will not address this issue.

We conclude that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying appellant’s request for his original birth certificate, and we will affirm the orders.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Appellant was born on December 2, 1952. On April 21, 1954, appellant’s adoptive parents, Louis and Patricia Bergna, filed a Petition for Adoption in Santa Clara County Superior Court. The petition averred: “That [appellant] was wholly abandoned and deserted by [his] parents without provision for [his] identification or for their identification, or for the identification of either of them; that on the 2nd day of December, 1952, at the approximate hour of 11:30 A.M. said child was turned over and placed in the custody of Louis P. Bergna by [his] mother, in the City and County of San Francisco, State of California, without any provision or means whatsoever being made or left by said mother, or by any other person, for the identification of said child, nor of said parent or parents, or either of them; that at the time of turning said child over to Louis P. Bergna and at a conference before that date, the natural mother of the child represented that the child was illegitimate, and that the mother had and was going to in the future take every step necessary to keep her identification and any association between herself and the child from becoming known.” (Capitalization omitted.) Petitioners also averred that “at the time said child was so deserted as aforesaid, it was of the approximate age of one day or thereabouts; [and] that this was made known to [Louis P. Bergna] at the time that the child was turned over to him by oral statements received from the natural mother.” On September 20, 1954, the trial court found that “all the averments contained in the petition . . . are true”; it granted the petition for adoption; and it awarded custody of the infant to Louis and Patricia Bergna. After the adoption was final, the State Department of Public Health issued a Certificate of Adoption. Louis Bergna died on March 23, 2001, and Patricia Bergna died on April 21, 2012. In or about August 2012, appellant filed a request in Santa Clara County Superior Court 2