68 Ind. App. 448 | Ind. Ct. App. | 1918
Pursuant to §1644 Burns 1914, Acts 1907 p. 59, a case was brought by Andrew Drake in the juvenile court of Parke county on November 7, 1917, wherein it was charged that Barbara Heber, sixteen years of age, and a daughter of appellants, was a neglected and dependent child and should be made a public charge. A notice was issued by the clerk of such court to appellants to bring such child before the court and to do what should be ordered concerning her. On November 20,1917, evidence was heard, after which there was a finding and judgment that it was for the best interest of such child to be made a ward of the state, and her custody was awarded to the board of children’s guardians of said county.
Following the statutes governing appeals in such cases the judge of such court has certified to this court the following facts: Finding 1. The infant, Barbara Heber, who was sixteen years old on June 10,1917, is the daughter of Andrew and Emma Heber, and on November 7,1917, had her home with her parents. Nos. 2 and 3. The home of said Barbara Heber on November 7, 1917, was in Parke county, Indiana, and she was in the junior grade of high school. No. 4. The parents refused to allow her, the said Barbara, to attend school anywhere. No. 5. She was cursed and abused and ill treated by both parents. No. 6. She had not been provided with proper or suitable clothes by her parents,. and was compelled by her parents to do work on the farm and other work about the house which was neither proper nor right that she should be required to perform. No. 7. The
No question is presented with respect to the findings of the court-; neither is the evidence before us. "We also find in appellants’ brief the following: “In no place in our brief have We complained of the sufficiency of the evidence and it was a matter of our own discretion whether or not we should do so.”
Appellants- have in effect admitted that the evidence was sufficient to warrant the facts found, but contend that the court should have sustained the mother’s affidavit for a change of venue from the judge, and that there was error in assuming jurisdiction over the subject-matter and over the person of the father, Andrew Heber.
Section 1646 (Acts 1907 p. 59) of the same act
The purpose of the act with which we are now dealing could not have been more clearly defined, and we may add that the courts generally in construing similar acts have placed a construction thereon similar to that which our legislature has by definite enactment provided. They have said that the object of the act is not punishment, but reformation, discipline, and education, and, to provide for the proper custody of children within certain age limits who on account of neglect of their parents or for other causes were in need of proper guardianship. While the courts have recognized this to be the primary purpose of the law, they have also consistently recognized the fundamental proposition that every parent is entitled to have the care and custody of his own child, and this right can only be taken from him when it is made to appear that some law of the state • enacted for the child’s welfare and the welfare of society has been disobeyed by him; that these questions are to be determined only after such parent has been given the opportunity of answering any charges which may be filed against him respecting such matters.,
Our Supreme Court in an early case, quoting from a Massachusetts case, has expressed the same prop
A guardianship duty rests upon the juvenile court so long as the child is a ward of the state, and if the court was required to grant a change of venue when
Judgment affirmed.
Note. — Reported in 118 N. E. 865.