Olson v. Children's Home Society

Opinion

ABBE, J. Appellants Barbara and Gary Olson appeal from a judgment entered against them after the court sustained the demurrer of respondent Children’s Home Society of California (CHS) without leave to amend. We affirm.

In early 1967 appellant Barbara Olson, then Barbara Stephens, was pregnant. She went to CHS, a state-licensed private adoption agency, for counseling, pre- and postnatal medical treatment and assistance in placing the unborn child for adoption. She gave birth to a male child in February 1967 and in that month signed a relinquishment of her parental rights and agreed to have CHS arrange for his adoption. CHS succeeded in arranging an adoption.

Appellants Barbara and Gary Olson were married in April 1975 and had a daughter in November 1980. The Olsons had another child, a son, in February 1983. This child died at the age of six months of an immune deficiency with hyper-IgM, more commonly known as “combined severe immune deficiency” (CSID). Appellants allege CSID is a genetically transmitted disease carried by females and is manifested in their male offspring.

After their son died and Mrs. Olson learned she was a carrier of the immunodeficiency, she telephoned CHS to inquire of the health of the adopted child. Her telephone inquiry was answered by a letter dated September 29, 1983, from a social work supervisor at CHS. The letter was [1365]attached to the complaint as an exhibit. The social work supervisor stated in the letter she had been able to contact the adoptive family and found that the boy was alive and he had CSID; She indicated that the adopted boy had been diagnosed as having disgammaglobulin anemia in 1971.

Appellants alleged that upon receipt of said letter, Mrs. Olson telephoned its author. During this telephone conversation, the social work supervisor, confirmed that CHS had been informed by the adopting parents that the adopted child was suffering from CSID and that the adopting parents had contacted CHS in 1967 when the adopted boy was first hospitalized at age five months with viral pneumonia. Appellants also allege that CHS was “. . . put on notice of the later diagnosis in 1971 of genetic disease. . . .”

Appellants allege that CHS did not contact Mrs. Olson after finding out that the child was diagnosed as having viral pneumonia in 1967 and a “genetic disease” in 1971. It cannot be ascertained from the complaint if the 1971 diagnosis of disgammaglobulin anemia is tantamount to a finding of CSID.