Rigby v. Stroud

MITCHELL, Judge.

The petitioner’s appeal presents the single issue of whether the trial court correctly determined that the respondent had not abandoned his minor son. In this jurisdiction, by statutory definition, “an abandoned child shall be any child who has been willfully abandoned at least six consecutive months immediately preceding institution of an action or proceeding to declare the child to be an abandoned child.” G.S. 48-2(3a). A. child has been “willfully abandoned” within the meaning of the statute when the conduct of the abandoning parent over the six months period reveals a…