Stanley v. Penley

• Decision Date: 20 April 1946
• Citation: 46 A.2d 710
• Parties: STANLEY v. PENLEY et al.
• Court: Maine Supreme Court

46 A.2d 710

STANLEY

v.PENLEY et al.

Supreme Judicial Court of Maine.

April 20, 1946.

Habeas corpus proceeding by James G. Stanley against Howard D. Penley and others to obtain custody of plaintiff's son. The child was ordered discharged from custody of the respondents, and custody was awarded to the plaintiff, and respondents bring the case to the Supreme Court on exceptions and a motion for new trial on ground of newly discovered evidence.

Exceptions and motion overruled.

Albert Knudsen, of Portland, for petitioner.

Jacob H. Berman and William B. Mahoney, both of Portland, for respondents.

Before STURGIS, C. J., and THAXTER, HUDSON, MANSER, MURCHIE, and TOMPKINS, JJ.

THAXTER, Justice.

A hearing was held by a justice of the Superior Court on a writ of habeas corpus petitioned for by a father who sought to obtain custody of his son of the age of three and a half years. The respondents are the maternal grandparents of the child, the child's stepfather, and the child's maternal aunt. After a lengthy hearing, during the course of which the justice presiding had the opportunity of seeing all of the parties, the child was ordered discharged from the custody of the respondents and custody was awarded to the father. The respondents bring the case here on exceptions and on a motion for a new trial on the ground of newly discovered evidence. There is no dispute as to the essential facts.

The Exceptions.

The petitioner, James G. Stanley, and Catherine Jane Thompson, the daughter of the respondents, Dr. and Mrs. Thompson, and the sister of the respondent, Mrs. Foss, were married April 26, 1941. A son, James G. Stanley, Jr., was born February 22, 1942. About two weeks after the birth of the child, while the mother after her return from the hospital was staying at the house of the Thompsons, the petitioner left his wife and, except on one occasion, did not thereafter see his child. Five months later a separation agreement was drawn up in contemplation of a libel for divorce to be brought by the wife. Under the terms of this agreement, the mother was to have the sole care and custody of the child, and the father was to purchase a home, the title to which was to be placed in the mother and child as joint tenants. There were other provisions relating to support and maintenance, counsel fees, and a division of property. Jane T. Stanley was granted a divorce from the petitioner at the October Term 1942 of the Superior Court for the County of Cumberland for the cause of cruel and abusive treatment, and the care and custody of the child was granted to the mother, and provision was made for alimony for the wife and support for the child. In February 1943 the petitioner married Mildred Holland and a son was born in July of the same year. A second son was born in February or March 1945. The first wife, Jane T. Stanley, was married May 15, 1943, to the respondent, Howard D. Penley. She lived with the second husband and the child in the house which had been bought for her in accordance with the terms of the separation agreement. A child was born of this second marriage in January 1944. In July 1945, Jane T. Penley (formerly Jane T. Stanley) died. At this time her husband, Howard D. Penley, was in the army in the Philippine Islands. He obtained a furlough, came home, and was in court and testified in the hearing on the writ of habeas corpus. James G. Stanley was in the European theater when he learned of the death of his first wife; and he likewise came home and made immediate claim to the custody of his child. There were conferences on the subject between Stanley and Penley which were not unfriendly. There was a conference between Stanley and Mrs. Thompson which was unfriendly, Mrs. Thompson claiming that Stanley and his second wife were unfit persons to bring up the child.

The final result was that the father petitioned for a writ of habeas corpus. The issue thereby presented to the court was whether custody of the child should be awarded to the grandparents, Dr. and Mrs. Thompson, who were supported in their claim to the child by their daughter, Mrs. Foss, and by their son-in-law, Howard D. Penley, or whether custody should be awarded to the child's father, James G. Stanley. A writ of habeas corpus is a proper remedy for a parent who claims to have been unjustly deprived of the custody of a child. Merchant v. Bussell, 139 Me. 118, 27 A.2d 816.

A parent has a natural right to the care and custody of a child, and, though that right is not absolute, it should be limited only for the most urgent reasons. Merchant v. Bussell, supra.

The claim of the grandparents is that in this instance the natural right of the petitioner to the custody of his child is not controlling, because, they say, neither he nor his second wife are proper persons to rear the child. No evidence is offered in support of that charge except the circumstances of...