An Act to amend and reenact § 46.1-299, as amended, of the Code of Virginia, relating to devices signalling intention to turn or stop and rules therefor.
Volume 1968 Law 99
Volume | 1922 |
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Law Number | 484 |
Subjects |
Law Body
Chap. 484.—An ACT to amend and re-enact section 5333 of the Code of Vir-
ginia, as amended by an act approved March 19, 1920. {[S B 79]
Approved March 27, 1922.
1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That sec-
tion fifty-three hundred and thirty-three of the Code of Virginia, as
amended by an act approved March nineteenth, nineteen hundred and
twenty, be amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:
Section 5333. Adoption of minor children by adult persons.—A
resident of this State who is not married, or a husband and wife
(residents of this State), jointly, may petition the circuit or corpo-
ration or hustings court of a city or the circuit court of a county, in
which city or county they reside, for leave to adopt a minor child
not theirs by birth, and for a change of the name of such child; but
a written consent duly acknowledged must be given to such adoption
by the child if of the age of fourteen years or over and by each of
his or her known living parents, who is not hopelessly insane or other-
wise incapacitated from giving such consent, or who is not habitually
addicted to the use of drugs or of intoxicating liquors, or has not
abandoned such child, or has not lost custody of the child through the
order of a court; or if the parents are disqualified, as aforesaid, then
by the legal guardian, or if there be no such guardian, then by a
discreet and suitable person appointed by the court to act in the
proceedings as the next friend of such child; but if such parents or
guardian join in said petition it shall be deemed such consent in
writing.
Upon the filing of said petition the court shall direct a probation
officer or other officer of the court, or an agent of the State or
county or city board of public welfare, or some other discreet and
competent person, to make a careful and thorough investigation of
the matter and report his findings in writing to said court. The
person so directed to make such investigation shall make inquiry,
among other things, as to:
(1) Why the natural parents, if living, desire to be relieved
of the care, support and guardianship of such child;
(2) Whether the natural parents have abandoned such child or
are morally unfit to have its custody; !
' (3) Whether the proposed foster parent or parents is or are
financially able and morally fit to have the care, supervision and
training of such child;
(4) The physical and mental condition of such child. For this
purpose said investigator may secure the opinion of a reputable physi-
cian or competent mental examiner, if the court is satisfied that the
natural parents have just cause for desiring to be relieved of the care,
support and guardianship of said child, or have abandoned the child,
or are morally unfit to retain its custody; that the petitioning foster
parent or parents is or are financially able and morally fit to have the
care, supervision and training of such child; that said child is suitable
for adoption in a private family home, and that such change of name
and guardianship is for the best interests of said child, it shall make
an interlocutory order setting forth the facts and declaring that from
the date of the final order of adoption in such case, if such final order
be afterwards entered, as hereinafter: provided, such child, to all
legal intents and purposes, will be the child of the petitioner or
petitioners and that its name may be thereby changed. Such final
order of adoption shall not be granted until the child shall have lived
for one year in the proposed home and shall have been visited during
the said period at least once in every three months by a probation
officer, an agent of the State or county or city board of public welfare
or other person designated by the court for the purpose. At any
time before the entry of such final order of adoption, the court may
revoke its interlocutory order for good cause, either of its own
motion, or on the motion of the natural parent or parents of such
child, the original petitioner or petitioners, or the child itself by its
next friend; but no such revocation shall be entered unless ten days
notice in writing shall have been given to the original petitioner or
petitioners, unless he or they make the motion or have removed
from the State nor unless the original petitioner or petitioners if
residents of the State shall have been given an opportunity to be
heard.
Upon the entry of such final order of adoption the judge or the
clerk of the court shall notify the State board of public welfare and
the county or city board of public welfare, if there be one, of the
action taken, giving the names and addresses of the natural parents,
if known, or of the child’s next of kin, the age and the name of such
child both before and after adoption, and the names and addresses of
the foster parents. Said boards of public welfare shall likewise be
notified of any subsequent modification or revocation of such order of
adoption.
The natural parents shall, by such final order of adoption, be
divested of all legal rights and obligations in respect to the child,
and the child shall -be free from all legal obligations of obedience
and maintenance in respect to them; such child shall from and after
the entry of the interlocutory order herein provided for be, to all
intents and purposes, the child and heir at law of the person so
adopting him or her, unless and until such order is subsequentially
revoked, entitled to all the rights, and privileges and subject to all
the obligations of a child of such person begotten in lawful wedlock ;
but on the decease of such person and the subsequent decease of such
adopted child without issue, the property of such adopting parent
still undisposed of shall descend to his or her next of kin and not to
the next of kin of such adopted child.
At any time after the final order of the court permitting such
adoption and change of name, the parent or parents of such minor
child, the State board of public welfare, or the child itself, if twenty-
one years of age, and if not twenty-one years of age, then the child
by its next friend, or the adopting parent or parents, may petition
the court which entered such order of adoption to vacate the same
and terminate the adoption and restore the former name. And the
court shall hear evidence for and against such petition, and if from
such evidence it appears that a termination of such adoption and
restoration of name is manifestly right and proper, and especially if
it be for the best interests of the child, the court shall vacate said
final order of adoption and change of name, and thereupon such
child shall be restored to the position and name which it held before
such final order of adoption. But before the court acts upon such
petition, ten days notice in writing shall be given ‘to the person or
persons who had been permitted to adopt said child if then residents
of the State; and if said petition be filed by the next friend of said
child, or by its parent or parents, and said child be over fourteen
years of age, the court shall require said child to appear before it
and ascertain its wishes in the matter, though the court need not be
controlled thereby.
And the court shall see that all the property rights of such child
as well as of the person or persons adopting it, are protected, and
may make such order as may be proper in the premises so that no
injustice may be done.