163 P. 104 | Mont. | 1917
delivered the opinion of the court.
On the twenty-eighth day of December, 1914, an order was made by the district court of Hill county admitting a certain
Appreciating this, the petitioner seeks to avoid prima facie the decree of adoption by allegations to the effect that the proceedings were without jurisdiction in the court; that Simon Pepin, being of French-Canadian blood, could not lawfully adopt Elizabeth Trottier, who is of Indian blood; and that the decree of adoption was procured by fraud on the court, in that the court was led to believe, and did believe, “ that said child
5. Finally, the facts alleged as invalidating Simon Pepin’s consent are indecisive. They are that because of illicit relations between him and Rose Trottier, the latter was enabled to induce him to believe that Elizabeth was his natural daughter, and that her influence over him in that behalf was enforced by menaces on her part and on the part of her husband. That Pepin was ever deceived in respect of Elizabeth’s relationship to him is refuted by his own petition for adoption — pleaded by the petitioner here — which recites that Elizabeth is the daughter of Rose and Andrew Trottier, husband and wife. Assuming it to be true that there were menaces, even that Pepin was bullied, coerced and driven into the adoption, he may nevertheless have become wholly satisfied with the arrangement, may have acquired through twelve years of association with Elizabeth in the adopted relation of parent and child, such affection as' not to desire & change, may have, in effect, ratified what he could have had annulled, so that for Exor Pepin or anyone else there could be no ground of complaint. One has only to imagine the petitioner in this ease seeking annulment of this adoption during the life
In our opinion the petitioner has not and shows that he cannot allege any sufficient interest in the matter of Simon Pepin’s estate to maintain this proceeding; the court was correct in dismissing his petition, and the order appealed from is affirmed.
Affirmed.