Hutchinson

The respondents are the twin daughters of defendant. Their age at the time of the trial ivas sixteen years. They base this action against their father upon section 203 of the Civil Code, which provides as follows: “The abuse of parental authority is the subject of judicial cognizance in a civil action brought by the child . ... . and when abuse is established the child may be freed from the dominion of the parent, and the duty of support and education enforced.” The judgment is that plaintiffs be freed from the parental dominion of their father, and that he pay to their guardian twenty-five dollars a month for their support and education. From this judgment and from an order denying a new trial defendant appeals.

The evidence shows that defendant is a hard-working man, a machinist by trade, and as such earns from sixty to eighty dollars a month; that his wife died some ten years before the trial of this case, and that since her death he has had sole care of plaintiffs until they ran away from home; that his family, of late years, has consisted of these two girls and his son Willie, who was some ten or twelve years of age at the time of the trial; that defendant, by reason of his…