Van Meter v. Murphy, S--424
| Decision Date | 11 December 1973 |
| Docket Number | No. S--424,S--424 |
| Citation | 287 So.2d 740 |
| Parties | Robert Emmet VAN METER, Sr., and Lillian Van Meter, Appellants, v. Charles Martin MURPHY et al., Appellees. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
George B. Stallings, Jr. of Stallings & Marr, Jacksonville, for appellants.
Charles Martin Murphy, and Robert J. Horne, Jacksonville, for appellees.
Appellant seeks reversal of an interlocutory order awarding temporary custody of minor children to the Division of Family Services, a state agency, for placement in a foster home.
Appellant, Robert Emmet Van Meter, Sr., and his wife are the paternal grandparents of the children, ages four and five, whose custody is involved. The children's natural parents have been shown to be clearly unfit, the mother having distinct mental problems which would have a detrimental effect on the children; and the father is wholly unfit, being in jail for having sexually molested two of his nieces. There seems to be no question that the children are proper subjects for custodial placement.
In response to appellees' petition for custody of the children here involved, the lower court rendered the order now on appeal and committed the children to the temporary care, custody and control of the appellee state agency for foster home placement. The said order of custody was entered after several hearings over a period of time during which the natural mother spirited the children away during a visit from the home of the paternal grandparents where they had been staying pursuant to agreement or acquiescence of both natural parents. Later the children were placed in the custody of the state, and again while visiting them the mother abducted them and kept them hidden for almost a year but ultimately returned the children.
Upon learning of their return, the paternal grandparents petitioned for custody of the children as did the maternal grandparents. In due course, a hearing was had and the court placed the children temporarily with the state for foster placement.
At the time of the entry of the custody order reviewed herein, the trial court did not have the guiding benefit of a new amendment to the juvenile law that has since been enacted, Chapter 73--231, Section 16, which amends Section 39.10, Florida Statutes, F.S.A., by adding a new subsection (5) thereto which reads:
'(5) In all cases where one or both of the parents of a child is unable or unfit to be awarded custody and where the child has a close relative who is fit, ready, able and willing to be awarded such custody, the court shall award the custody of the child to such close relative and not...
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Brooks v. Wainwright
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