Ex parte Thetford
| Decision Date | 24 July 1963 |
| Docket Number | No. A-9649,A-9649 |
| Citation | 369 S.W.2d 924 |
| Parties | Ex parte J. D. THETFORD and Wife, Mamie Thetford. |
| Court | Texas Supreme Court |
Doss Hardin, Fort Worth, Sid L. Hardin, Edinburg, for relators.
Toby Goldsmith, Fort Worth, for respondent.
Petitioners seek relief from an indefinite sentence to jail imposed by a judgment of the District Court of the 17th Judicial District, Tarrant County.
Petitioners are the grandparents of three minor children, Cynthia Kay Thetford, VaLinda Gay Thetford and Timothy Jason Thetford. Carlton Allen Thetford, petitioners' son, is the father of the children. Carlton and his wife, Dorothy ann, were divorced in February, 1961 and legal custody of the children was awarded to the mother. In October, 1961 the mother left the children with one Ruth Scott, and has not been heard from since that time.
On some date not shown in the record, Ruth Scott filed suit in the 48th District Court of Tarrant County against Carlton Thetford and petitioners for legal custody of the children, but citation was never served on Carlton Thetford and he never filed an answer or entered an appearance. Thereafter, petitioners filed suit in the 17th District Court against Ruth Scott for custody of the children. Ruth Scott's suit was transferred from the 48th District Court to the 17th District Court, and the two suits were consolidated and set for trial on June 4, 1963, at which time trial was begun. The court recessed the trial to June 13th, with an announcement by the court that the children were to remain in the physical custody of Ruth Scott until the taking of testimony was concluded on that date.
Ruth Scott left the children with a sixteen year old babysitter in Fort Worth during the evening of June 4th. They were forcibly taken from her possession.
On June 10th, pursuant to a petition therefor filed by Ruth Scott, the Judge of the 17th District Court issued an order to petitioners commanding them to produce the children before the court on June 12th, and to show cause why they held the children in restraint of their liberty and why they should not be held in contempt of the court.
Both of petitioners appeared, were sworn as witnesses and testified at the hearing on June 12th. They did not produce the children. Both testified that they were not at the home of the baby-sitter on the 4th, but were in Cleburne the entire evening on that date; that during the evening their son telephoned them and told them he had obtained possession of the children, and that he brought them by later in the evening for a visit; that they did not have possession of the children, and did not know where their son had taken them.
The baby-sitter was the only other witness to testify at the hearing. She testified that petitioners and Carlton Theford came to the house where she was caring for the children during the evening of June 4th; that petitioner, J. D. Thetford, was the driver of the automobile in which they arrived and remained in it, but that petitioner, Mamie Thetford, came into the house with her son and pushed the witness as she was seeking to prevent the father from forcibly taking the children from her possession; that the children were taken away in the automobile.
At the conclusion of the hearing the court ordered petitioners to produce the children in court by 9:00 o'clock, a. m., on June 13th, and when they failed to do so they were adjudged to be in contempt for failing to produce the children as ordered and for giving perjured testimony. As punishement the court imposed a fine of $100.00 on each of the petitioners and ordered them confined in jail for three days, the maximum punishment for contempt authorized by Art. 1911, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes. The court further ordered that petitioners remain in jail until they should purge themselves of their contempt by producing the three children before the court.
Petitioners were confined in jail on June 13th and had been confined for three days when we ordered their release on bond on June 17th. They have since paid the fines assessed against them. It thus appears that petitioners are now restrained of their liberty by virtue of the coercive part of the judgment which directs that they be confined in jail until they produce the children before the...
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Ex parte Hefner
...a collateral attack on a judgment of contempt, and one may be relieved of its impositions only if the judgment is void. Ex parte Thetford, 369 S.W.2d 924, 925 (Tex.1963); Ex parte Rhodes, 163 Tex. 31, 32, 352 S.W.2d 249 (1962); Ex parte Kidd, 156 Tex. 282, 294 S.W.2d 705 (1956); Ex parte Se......
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In re Interest of H.C.
...to something to be done by the defendant by the doing of which [s]he may discharge [her]self." Id. at 147 ; see also Ex parte Thetford , 369 S.W.2d 924, 926 (Tex. 1963) (holding that "[a]ll of the testimony at the contempt hearing shows that [father] ... took possession and control of the c......
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In re Brown, 07-03-0165-CV.
...538 S.W.2d 409, 410 (Tex.1976). Therefore, relator may be relieved of that order only if the judgment is void. Id.; Ex parte Thetford, 369 S.W.2d 924, 925 (Tex.1963); Ex parte Scariati, 988 S.W.2d 270, 272 (Tex.App.-Amarillo 1998, orig. proceeding). When collaterally attacked in a habeas co......
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Ex parte Ramzy, B--498
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