In re Corey, 30293.

• Citation: 145 Ohio St. 413,61 N.E.2d 892
• Decision Date: 20 June 1945
• Docket Number: No. 30293.,30293.
• Parties: In re COREY.
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Ohio

145 Ohio St. 413
61 N.E.2d 892

In re COREY.

No. 30293.

Supreme Court of Ohio.

June 20, 1945.

[61 N.E.2d 892]

Syllabus by the Court.

1. By virtue of the provisions of Section 1639-24, General Code, the parents of a minor child or children are entitled to notice, actual or constructive, in a proceeding instituted in the Juvenile Court upon a complaint of dependency of such children. Unless such notice is given to the parents, the jurisdiction of the court does not attach and a judgment of commitment rendered in such proceeding is void.

2. Parents are the legal and natural custodians of their minor children, and each parent has an equal right to such custody in the absence of an order, judgment or decree of a court of competent jurisdiction fixing their custody.

3. A proceeding in habeas courpus is not the proper or appropriate action to determine, as between parents, who is entitled to the custody of their minor children.

Appeal from Court of Appeals, Ashtabula County.

Habeas courpus proceeding by Lester L. Corey against Agnes Weldy involving alleged right to the custody of the minor children of the parties. From a judgment denying the writ, petitioner appeals as of right.-[Editorial Statement.]

Affirmed.

Lester L. Corey filed a petition for a writ of habeas courpus in the Court of Appeals of Ashtabula county. In the petition it is alleged that Illomae and Geraldine Corey, minor children aged 12 and nine years respectively, are deprived of their liberty by one Agnes Weldy. The writ was issued.

[61 N.E.2d 893]

Agnes Weldy filed an answer and the petitioner filed a reply thereto. The cause was submitted to the court upon the pleadings and an agreed statement of facts.

The court found ‘that the children in question are not illegally detained * * * and it is further ordered that the writ of habeas corpus prayed for by the petitioner herein be and the same is hereby denied.’

The cause is here upon appeal as of right.

Further facts are stated in the opinion.

Tom R. Bailey, of Ashtabula, for appellant, Lester L. Corey.

Earl C. Pettersson, of Painesville, for appellee, Agnes Weldy.

BELL, Judge.

Lester L. Corey and Agnes Weldy were husband and wife and are the parents of the two minor children, Illomae and Geraldine Corey. On September 2, 1938, one Gertrude L. Fox filed a complaint in the Juvenile Court of Ashtabula county, in the following words and figures (omitting the formal parts and the verification):

‘The state of Ohio, Ashtabula county.

‘Before the Juvenile Court of said county...