Matter of Guardianship of Michels

HENSHAW, J.

Petitioners who are likewise the appellants herein, are the father and mother of Rosa Michels, a female child, aged about seven years. They petitioned the superior court to be appointed guardians of the person of their infant daughter. Their petition showed that they are husband and wife and that the child was bom in lawful wedlock; that some years previously they came to Los Angeles with their five children, the eldest then about ten years of age, the youngest Rosa, then about one year of age. At that time Rosa was crippled and unable to stand. A physician told the parents that the child should be sent to a hospital for treatment, and the child was sent to the

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Children’s Hospital, a charitable institution, where she was taken care of without charge. She remained there twelve months—eleven of those months upon a stretcher. During that period the father called upon her frequently. The mother was unable to do so, being herself engrossed in her household duties, being ill, and during that period giving birth to another child. Miss Verna Shaw was a nurse in the Children’s Hospital and became interested in little Rosa. Verna Shaw sought to be allowed to adopt her. The father declined to accede to her request, but permitted her to take the child to her parents’ ranch in the neighborhood of Los Angeles, where it was represented the child would improve in health, with pure air and fresh milk. It was agreed between the parents and Verna Shaw that she should take the child, keep her at the ranch for a period of two years, and then return her to her parents. The child was taken to the ranch. Thereafter Verna Shaw visited the petitioners and told them the child was doing well. They asked to see it, but Verna Shaw replied that it was better that the child be not brought to the city. Receiving no more visits from Verna Shaw the petitioners called upon her at the Children’s Hospital and were told that she had left the hospital and that her address was unknown. The child was taken to the country in the early part of the year 1911, and they did not learn where she was until March, 1914, when they took steps to regain her custody. Upon learning that petitioners desired to secure possession of the child, Verna Shaw proceeded to have the child declared by the juvenile court to be an abandoned child, and for that purpose, on or about the first of May, 1914, filed in the superior court a petition under the act concerning dependent and delinquent minor children (Stats. 1909, p. 213, Civ. Code, sec. 224), in which petition it was declared that the infant, Rosa Michels, was on the twenty-fourth day of December, 1910, left in the care and custody of Verna Shaw by the parents of the minor without the parents making any provision for the minor’s support. A hearing was had in the juvenile department of the superior court before the Hon. Fred H. Taft, and the superior court determined and declared Rosa Michels to be an abandoned child. Petitioners were present at the hearing in person and by their attorney, and introduced evidence showing that they had not abandoned the child and never intended to abandon the child,-