In Re Foster., 523.
| Citation | 209 N.C. 489,183 S.E. 744 |
| Decision Date | 26 February 1936 |
| Docket Number | No. 523.,523. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court of North Carolina |
| Parties | In re FOSTER. |
Appeal from Superior Court, Mecklenburg County; Harding, Judge.
Proceeding in the matter of the adoption of Ann Foster, a minor child, by Norman D. Doane and wife, wherein Mildred Van de Sande and her husband filed a petition. Judgment ordering letters of adoption issued to Norman D. Doane and wife, and Mildred Van de Sande and husband appeal.
Affirmed.
This is a proceeding for the adoption of Ann Foster, the minor child of Mildred Foster, now Mildred Van de Sande, wife of J. N. Van de Sande.
The proceeding was begun on September 11, 1933, by a petition filed with the clerk of the superior court of Mecklenburg county, by Norman D. Doane and his wife, Cleora C. Doane, under the provisions of chapter 207, Public Laws of North Carolina, 1933.
An order was entered in the proceeding by the court directing the superintendent of public welfare of Mecklenburg county to make a careful and thorough investigation of the matters alleged in the petition, and to report, in writing, to the court his findings with respect to said matters.
After the report of the superintendent of public welfare had been filed, an interlocutory order was entered in the proceeding by the court, by which the child, Ann Foster, was committed to the custody and care of the petitioners, Norman D. Doane and his wife Cleora C. Doane, for a term of one year, and until a final order of adoption should be entered in the proceeding in accordance with the prayer of the petition. It was provided in said interlocutory order that if a final order of adoption should be made in the proceeding, the said final order should be retroactive, and be deemed to have been effective to all intents and purposes from the date of the filing of the petition. It was further provided therein that pending the making of a final order of adoption, the said Ann Foster should be and remain the ward of the court, and should be under the supervision of the superintendent of public welfare of Mecklenburg county. The interlocutory order was entered on September 21, 1933.
Before the expiration of one year from the date of the said interlocutory order, to wit, on or about March 1, 1934, Mildred Van de Sande and her husband, J. N. Van de Sande, filed a petition in the proceeding in which on, the facts alleged therein they prayed the court to vacate and set aside the interlocutory order entered on September 21, 1933, to remand the said Ann Foster to the custody and care of the petitioners, and to dismiss the proceeding.
The original petitioners, Norman D. Doane and his wife, Cleora C. Doane, filed an answer to the petition of Mildred Van de Sande, and her husband, J. N. Van de Sande, in which on the facts alleged therein they prayed the court to deny the prayer of said petition, and to make a final order of adoption in the proceeding in accordance with the prayer in their petition. The proceeding was thereupon docketed in the superior court of Mecklenburg for the trial of issues of fact raised by the pleadings.
The proceeding was heard at June Special Term, 1935, of the superior court. At said hearing a trial by jury of the issues of fact raised by the pleadings was waived, and by consent of the parties, the judge heard the evidence and found the facts, which are substantially as follows:
1. The petitioner, Mildred Van de Sande, prior to her marriage to the petitioner, J. N. Van de Sande, on October 20, 1930, at Greensboro, N. C, gave birth to an illegitimate child, who is the child referred to in the petitions in this proceeding as Ann Foster. The petitioner, J. N. Van de Sande, is not the father of said child. At the date of its birth, Mildred Van de Sande, who was then Mildred Foster, was about nineteen years of age. She lived with her father and mother in their home in the city of Charlotte, Mecklenburg county, N. C. After the birth of her child, Mildred Foster returned, with her child, to the home of her father and mother in the city of Charlotte, and continued to live in said home, with her child, until July 15, 1932. During this time, she was wholly dependent upon her father and mother for the support of herself and of her child. Both her parents resented the presence ofthe child in their home and insisted" that if the said Mildred Foster continued to live with them, she must make provision for her child elsewhere. The attitude of her parents towards her and towards her child made the said Mildred Foster very unhappy. Finally, on or about July 15, 1932, sometime after she had attained the age of twenty-one, and when her child was nearly two years of age, Mildred Foster delivered her child, Ann Foster, to a representative of the Junior League of the city of Charlotte, and at the same time signed a paper-writing in words as follows:
2. On the day she signed the release, and delivered her child to the representative of the Junior League, Mildred Foster was informed that when the child was removed from her home its whereabouts thereafter would be unknown to her. She said, "It is breaking my heart to give up my baby, but there is nothing else to do." She was distressed and unhappy, nervous and worried by the attitude of her parents, which compelled her to give up her child.
3. Immediately after the child was delivered by Mildred Foster to the representative of the Junior League of the city of Charlotte, it was taken before the judge of the domestic relations court of the city of Charlotte...
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