In Re Mundell

Petitioner, the father of a female child, alleges that she is restrained of her liberty by one Dodds, which restraint is unlawful in that the child is so restrained under an order of the superior court of Los Angeles county, sitting in special session as a juvenile court under the law of the state relating to dependent children, that such child is not a dependent child under such act.

The return of Dodds shows that, upon the filing of a petition in which it was alleged that said child was of the age of fifteen years, and was a dependent child under the act approved February 26, 1903, in this, “that the said child is without proper guardianship and her home is an unfit place for such child,” a warrant was issued and subsequently, upon the hearing, the court found said child to be under the age of sixteen years, and accordingly ordered the child into the custody of the respondent, as probation officer, to be by him placed in the Home of the Good Shepherd for six months, or until further order of the court; that under such order, and not otherwise, was he restraining such child of her liberty.

The act of the legislature before mentioned provides that “the words ‘dependent child’…