Matter of Guardianship of Ambrose

LORIGAN, J.

This is an appeal from an order appointing a guardian of the person and estate of said minor.

The petition for letters of guardianship was filed by C. S. Cline, respondent, and probation officer of the county of Butte. The minor, who was of the age of fourteen years, filed also her request consenting to his appointment. The appointment of the petitioner as guardian of the person of the minor was sought for the avowed purpose, as stated in the petition, that the guardian might give his consent to the marriage of said minor with one Joseph Freitas, who, under promise to marry the minor when she attained the age of consent, had been sexually intimate with her, as a result of which she was expected soon to become a mother. The parents of the minor opposed the appointment of a guardian. On the hearing in the court below it appeared that Freitas and the father of the girl were engaged together in the dairy business and that while living on the ranch with her family the relations between himself and the girl commenced. When her condition of pregnancy was well advanced Freitas confessed to the parents his relations with their daughter and her condition and asked their consent to her marriage with him. This was refused and naturally angered and incensed at the conduct of Freitas toward his daughter the father immediately filed a complaint before a justice of the peace charging him with the crime of rape. Apart from his conduct with the girl, which was most reprehensible and which undoubtedly on account of her being under the age of sixteen years subjected him to prosecution for the crime of rape, Freitas was shown on the hearing to be a man of good character and reputation, honest, and indns

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trious and possessed of some considerable means, and both he and the girl expressed an affection for each other and a desire to be married. The parents of the girl were strongly opposed to her marriage, entertaining and declaring against Freitas a natural and justifiable aversion on account of his conduct toward their daughter. It appeared without question that the parents entertained a deep affection and love for their daughter, were perfectly competent financially and otherwise to take care of her and her child in her-misfortune, and desired to retain their paternal custody and control over her for the purpose of doing so, and preferring that an illegitimate child be born to their daughter rather than that she should marry Freitas. Notwithstanding this opposition of the parents the court was of the opinion that under all the circumstances disclosed by the evidence it would be for the best interest of the minor in respect to her temporal, mental, and moral welfare that the said C. S. Cline be appointed her guardian and accordingly so ordered. The order of the court, of course, said nothing with respect to the guardian consenting to the marriage of his ward, although the obvious purpose of having him appointed guardian was that he might do so. From this order the parents appeal, insisting that there was no evidence whatever in the case to authorize the court in depriving them of their natural rights as parents to the control and custody of their child; nothing to show that they were unfitted or unqualified to exercise such rights and that, hence, the order depriving them of such control and custody was unwarranted.