Matter of Bistany

In September, 1923, Joseph K. Bistany and Katherine, his wife, submitted to a judge a petition that Ellen Matejka, then about six years of age, be adopted as their child. The parents are alive, and have refused to consent to the adoption. The county judge held that they had abandoned the child, and that because of such abandonment their consent was unnecessary. Section 111 of the Domestic Relations Law (Consol. Láws, ch. 14, as amended by L. 1922, ch. 628), though providing for consent in general, establishes an exception in the" case of “ a parent who has abandoned the child, or is deprived…