In re Corey
Decision Date | 20 June 1945 |
Docket Number | 30293. |
Citation | 145 Ohio St. 413,61 N.E.2d 892 |
Parties | In re COREY. |
Court | Ohio Supreme Court |
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.
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.
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.
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.
On that same day the court made an entry reading in part as follows:
* * *'
Pursuant to that order the children were delivered to the children's home and remained there until June 8, 1943, at which time they were turned over to the petitioner (hereinafter called appellant) by the trustees of the home without any court order. The children remained with him until the early part of July 1944, at which time he permitted them to visit their mother who promised to return them at the end of two weeks.
It is a reasonable inference from the record that some time after September 2, 1938, and prior to July 1944, Agnes Corey became Mrs. Horace Weldy.
On July 26, 1944, the Juvenile Court made the following entry:
'In the matter of Illomae Corey and Geraldine Corey, alleged dependent children.
Thereafter appellant filed an application to modify the last-mentioned order. Before a hearing thereon, he filed his petition for a writ of habeas courpus. Thereafter he dismissed, without prejudice, his application to modify.
Appellant summarizes his position as follows:
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In re Corey, 30293.
...145 Ohio St. 41361 N.E.2d 892In re COREY.No. 30293.Supreme Court of Ohio.June 20, [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 ......