Busbee v. Weeks
| Decision Date | 21 July 1920 |
| Citation | 80 Fla. 323,85 So. 653 |
| Parties | BUSBEE v. WEEKS et al. |
| Court | Florida Supreme Court |
Error to Circuit Court, Walton County; A. G. Campbell, Judge.
Habeas corpus by Andrew Busbee against Emiline Weeks and others to determine the custody of a child. An order granting the custody to defendants was entered, and petitioner brings error. Reversed.
Syllabus by the Court
At common law the father has a paramount right to the custody and control of his legitimate minor children, subject only to lawful regulations for the benefit of his children.
Where an infant girl's mother died at its birth and when the child was three days old its father verbally committed its care and custody to its maternal grandparents until the father could otherwise provide for its proper care, and when the child is about four years old the father, who with his other children live with his parents, is entitled to the custody of the infant girl, particularly when all of the home conditions of the maternal grandparents are not so desirable and the father's home with his parents is a proper place for the child's welfare, even though the personal attentions of the maternal grandparents to the infant girl are in every way commendable.
COUNSEL Walter Kehoe, of Pensacola, for plaintiff in error.
The writ of error herein was under the statute allowed and taken to an order awarding the care and custody of Irene Busbee, an infant female child about four years of age, to its maternal grandparents with privileges to the child's father to have her 'in his home two days and nights in succession once in every two weeks during the time this order is in force'; the order providing further that the father 'and his children, brothers and sister of the said Irene Busbee, be permitted at all reasonable times to visit the said Irene in the home of the' grandparents, and that the grandparents 'teach the said Irene Busbee to recognize Andrew Busbee as its father, and also to love, honor and respect him as her father, and also to love its brothers and sister who are now with the petitioner,' the father of Irene.
It appears that Irene's mother died at Irene's birth and that when three days old Irene was by her father committed to the care of her maternal grandparents until he could otherwise provide for her proper care. The father and his three older children now live with his parents, and the father is able to properly care for Irene with the assistance of his parents. The evidence indicates that the present home of the father is a proper place for the child, and that the conditions at the home of the child's maternal grandparents are not so desirable, though such grandparents are attached to Irene.
The provisions of the order have regard for family considerations, but they do not accord to the father all the rights he is entitled to under the law as it exists in this state.
At common law the father has the paramount right to the custody and control of his legitimate minor children, subject only to lawful regulations for the benefit of the children. Porter v. Porter, 60 Fla. 407, 53 So. 546, Ann. Cas 1912C, 867; Hernandez v....
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Mize v. Mize
...the Florida Constitution.2 Courts' positions on custody matters have evolved significantly over the years. Compare Busbee v. Weeks, 80 Fla. 323, 325, 85 So. 653, 653 (1920) ("At common law the father has the paramount right to the custody and control of his legitimate minor children....") w......
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Penney v. Penney
... ... shown to be an improper person to best conserve the welfare ... of his children. See Hopkins v. Hopkins, 84 Fla ... 500, 94 So. 157; Busbee v. Weeks, 80 Fla. 323, 85 ... So. 653; Porter v. Porter, 60 Fla. 407, 53 So. 546, ... Ann.Cas. 1912C, 867; Hernandez v. Thomas, 50 Fla ... 522, ... ...
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State Ex Rel. Bonsack v. Campbell
...to be an improper person to best conserve the welfare of his children. See Hopkins v. Hopkins, 84 Fla. 500, 94 So. 157; Busbee v. Weeks, 80 Fla. 323, 85 So. 653; v. Porter, 60 Fla. 407, 53 So. 546, Ann.Gas.1912C, 867; Hernandez v. Thomas, 50 Fla. 522, 39 So. 641, 2 L.R.A.,N.S., 203, 111 Am.......
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Behn v. Timmons
...not in any respect find the father to be unfit, although it did find that 'the children need a younger mother figure'. Busbee v. Weeks, 80 Fla. 323, 85 So. 653 (1920), is on point. There, the father of a newly born female child, whose mother died in bearing the child, permitted the maternal......