Almquist

This is an appeal by the defendants from a judgment declaring null and void an order of adoption of the superior court for the county of Los Angeles, by which the defendants adopted as their child Margaret Almquist, who was at that time of the age of about four years. The plaintiff is the mother of the child.

The child was adopted by the defendants in November, 1912. Five years later, in November, 1917, the present action was commenced to annul the order of adoption upon the grounds, (1) that the father did not consent to the adoption and no notice was given to him of the adoption proceedings, and (2) that fraud was practiced upon the mother to obtain her consent. The trial court found against the plaintiff on this latter allegation, but annulled the order upon its findings that the written consent of the father of the child had not been obtained, and that the child was not an abandoned child within the provisions of section 224 of the Civil Code as it existed at the time of the adoption proceedings; and that the father was never judicially deprived of the custody of the child.

Appellant urges that the facts do not support the finding that the child was not an abandoned child,…