Bullard v. Welch
| Decision Date | 21 January 1935 |
| Docket Number | 31531 |
| Citation | 171 Miss. 833,158 So. 791 |
| Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
| Parties | BULLARD v. WELCH et ux |
1. PARENT AND CHILD.
Mother's dying request that child be placed in custody of married daughter, and father's assent thereto, if viewed as contract for disposition of child, was void as against public policy, as respects father's right to recover child's custody.
2. PARENT AND CHILD.
Father held entitled to recover custody of four year old daughter who had been placed in custody of married daughter and husband when she was nine days old at her mother's dying request, where facts showed that father had not abandoned child and was not unsuitable person to have custody.
HON THOS. H. JOHNSTON, Judge.
APPEAL from the circuit court of Tishomingo county HON. THOS. H JOHNSTON, Judge.
Habeas corpus proceeding by J. D. Bullard, Jr., against J. Q. Welch and wife. From an adverse judgment, petitioner appeals. Reversed, and judgment entered.
Reversed, and judgment here for the appellant.
T. A. Clark, of Iuka, for appellant.
The appellant was clearly entitled to an order of the court giving him the custody of the child; there is nothing in the record to show that appellant had abandoned the child nor was there any immoral conduct on his part for which the court should not let him have the custody of the child.
Stegall (Blaylock) v. Stegall, 119 So. 802; Kinnaird v. Lowery, 102 Miss. 559, 59 So. 843; Hibbette et al. v. Baines, 29 So. 80; Nickle v. Burnette, 122 Miss. 56, 84 So. 138.
James A. Cunningham, of Booneville, for appellees.
The question of the mother's last provisions for her baby child was not admissible for but one purpose, and that was the judgment of a mother who knew her husband's habits, and who knew the children's inaptitude to care for the child, and who longed to, provide it with a motherly home.
The trial judge evidently felt like this court did in the case of Miles v. Miles, 71 So. 295, that the father's situation and the father's home environment was such that he was justified in relinquishing the rule of the common law as to, the father's right, and so holding where the safety, health, and development of the child demanded it.
Morgan et al. v. Shelly, 72. So. 700.
The appellant's minor daughter, who is now four years of age, has been in the possession and custody of his married daughter and her husband since she was nine days old, and he instituted this habeas corpus proceeding to recover the custody of this child.
Appellees, J. Q. Welch and his wife, Lena Welch, answered the petition, and alleged that the appellant abandoned the child when it was only nine days old, when, at the suggestion and request of both the appellant and the child's mother in her dying moments, she was placed in the custody of the appellees with the distinct understanding that they should keep and real her. The answer further averred that the appellees have had the care and custody of the child since she was nine days old; that during that period the appellant has contributed nothing to her; that all the natural instincts of love and affection and the binding ties of relationship have been fully established between the appellees and the child; that appellees were, in every way, fitted to render the tender care so necessary in the young life of a child, while the appellant is not fitted to give the child this care and attention; and that the best interest of the child would be served by her being permitted to remain in the possession and custody of the appellees.
Upon the proof offered, the trial judge found that, because of the extreme youth of the child, it would be for her best interest that she be permitted to remain with the appellees temporarily, or until she was sufficiently mature to be delivered into the care and custody of her father, or until his conditions have so changed that he can give her the proper care and attention; and from this judgment, this appeal is prosecuted.
On the hearing of the cause many of the neighbors of the respective par...
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Fourths v. Warren
...their condition, at a period of life when the law dedicates both their persons and their services to parental control." In Bullard v. Welch, 171 Miss. 833, 158 So. 791, it held that a mother's dying request that her child be placed in the custody of her married daughter, and the father's as......
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McKee v. Flynt, 91-CA-0987
...distress and was a free agent, such a contract being void as against public policy. Walker 58 So.2d at 81. See also, Bullard v. Welch, 171 Miss. 833, 158 So. 791, 792 (1935); Hibbette v. Baines, 78 Miss. 695, 29 So. 80, 87 Natalie testified that she signed the agreement because Darren told ......
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Wilson v. Davis
...The boys do not appear to have harmed their younger sister, Sha's stepsister, who lives in the home with them.7 See Bullard v. Welch, 171 Miss. 833, 158 So. 791 (1935) ; Sinquefield v. Valentine, 159 Miss. 144, 132 So. 81 (1931) ; Nickle v. Burnett, 122 Miss. 56, 84 So. 138 (1920) ; Rawling......
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