6.5 Court Appointed Guardian

When: no parent (orphan), parents incapacitated/absent (migrant-era abandonment), the natural guardian displaced, or no functioning testamentary appointment; Who petitions: any relative, the ward office, a concerned person, or the court's own motion (the protective jurisdiction); the district court (and the local level's child-protection machinery) appoints; Selection criteria: the ward's welfare first — kinship preferences (the near relative), the appointee's capacity and character, the child's own view at discernment; the guardian ad litem for litigation (the suit-guardian for the child's court proceedings); The appointment's incidents: defined powers, the duty to act under the court's direction, inventory of the ward's property, periodic accounting, court sanction for the sale/mortgage of the ward's immovables; Removal: misconduct, breach of trust, incapacity, conflict of interest, the ward's welfare — the court's continuing supervision.