In re The Petition of Bessie May Bush

• Decision Date: 07 November 1891
• Citation: 47 Kan. 264,27 P. 1003
• Parties: In the matter of the Petition of BESSIE MAY BUSH, an Infant, for a Writ of Habeas Corpus
• Court: Kansas Supreme Court

27 P. 1003

47 Kan. 264

In the matter of the Petition of BESSIE MAY BUSH, an Infant, for a Writ of Habeas Corpus

Supreme Court of Kansas

November 7, 1891

Decided July, 1891.

Original Proceeding in Habeas Corpus.

THE facts are sufficiently stated in the opinion herein, filed November 7, 1891.

Writ denied.

M. E Matthews, for petitioner.

J. F Gurnsey, and W. C. Webb, for respondents.

STRANG C. All the Justices concurring.

OPINION

STRANG, C.:

September 19, 1887, there was born to Ida May Potter, a single woman of 17 years of age, a female child, afterward named Bessie May Potter. The said Ida May Potter, being unable to properly support and care for her said child, and being anxious to procure a home for her, went, on the 28th day of August, 1888, before the probate judge of the county of Stafford, where she resided, and relinquished all her claim to said child to Calvin and Anna McClure, husband and wife who at the same time appeared before said probate court and expressed a desire to adopt said child as their own. The probate court, after investigating the fitness of said persons, Calvin and Anna McClure, to take the care and custody of said infant, and to assume the relation of parents thereto, made an order permitting and confirming the adoption of said infant by said Calvin and Anna McClure, which said order shows that the court, and all the parties to the adoption of Bessie May Potter by Anna and Calvin McClure, complied with all the provisions of the statute relating to the adoption of minor children; after which the infant was taken by the McClures to their home, and from that time until the present has been cared for and supported as their own. On the 17th day of June, 1891, said Calvin and Anna McClure were cited to appear before the probate court of Stafford county, before which a hearing was then had, and a decision rendered by said court setting aside the order under which Bessie May Potter was adopted by Calvin and Anna McClure, because the mother of said child, Ida May Potter, who in the meantime had intermarried with a man named Bush, was not 18 years of age when she appeared before the probate court on the 28th day of August, 1888, and assented to the adoption of said infant by the McClures. The probate court also found that the mother of said child should pay the McClures some $ 300 in money for the care and support of said child, and made such finding a part of its judgment, and required said sum to be paid before its judgment should take effect. The petitioner, not wishing to pay the $ 300, and the respondents not wishing to accept the $ 300 and surrender the child, then abandoned the probate court as a forum through which to obtain possession of her child, and filed her petition for a writ of habeas corpus in this court, July 22, 1891. Thereupon an order issued, requiring the respondents to produce the body of said infant before the court September 3, 1891. The respondents answered the petition, setting up the record of the probate court of Stafford county, showing the adoption of...