State ex rel. Machgan v. Pelowski
| Decision Date | 30 April 1920 |
| Docket Number | 21,439 |
| Citation | 177 N.W. 627,145 Minn. 383 |
| Parties | STATE EX REL. WILLIAM F. MACHGAN v. JOHN PELOWSKI AND ANOTHER |
| Court | Minnesota Supreme Court |
Upon the relation of William F. Machgan the district court for Le Sueur county granted its writ of habeas corpus directed to John Pelowski and Veronica Pelowski commanding them to release his child, Ethel Machgan, and surrender her to relator. The matter was heard by Tifft, J., who awarded the custody of the child to relator. From that order, John Pelowski and Veronica Pelowski appealed. Affirmed.
Custody of child by parent.
1. A father's right to the care and custody of his child is superior to that of any other person, and he should not be deprived of that right unless the best interests of the child so require.
Balancing of advantages to child.
2. In determining whether the father or the child's maternal grandparents shall have the custody of the child in controversy, the court will consider the advantages likely to inure to the child from an agreement between the child's parents and grandparents, that the latter should rear and educate her and make the same provisions in their will for her as for their own children, but such agreement, while executory, is not controlling upon the question of custody.
Custody awarded to father.
3. The father in this case is held a proper person to have the care and custody of his child, and the welfare of the child best served by awarding her custody and care to him.
Charles C. Kolars, F. C. & H. A. Irwin and Moonan & Moonan, for appellants.
Herbert P. Keller, for respondent.
By habeas corpus William F. Machgan seeks to obtain the custody of his daughter Ethel from John and Veronica Pelowski, the parents of Ethel's deceased mother. The father prevailed in the district court, and the grandparents appealed to this court. The trial here is de novo. Upon the testimony taken and reported by the referee herein the following facts appear:
In October, 1913, Machgan, then about 22 years old, married Anna Pelowski, who was three years younger. He was born and brought up in St. Paul, his parents being German Lutherans. Anna was born and raised on a farm in Le Sueur county, her parents being Polanders of the Catholic faith. To secure their consent to the marriage Machgan became a Catholic. The young couple first boarded for a month or two with the husband's relatives in St. Paul, and then went to housekeeping in rented rooms. Machgan had very little with which to establish a household, and received some help from Anna's parents. He was an operator in a shoe factory, and had been such for some time. In October, 1914, Ethel was born. A year later a strike in the factory caused Machgan to despair of earning a living for his family in the city. The Pelowskis were appealed to, and they received Machgan with his wife and child into their home. In the spring of 1916 Machgan secured temporary quarters in neighboring unoccupied farm houses, and did whatever work he could find to do among the farmers, but it is clear that the Pelowskeis continued to give substantial aid to Machgan's family as long as Anna lived. In the fall of 1916, Anna appears to have contracted a serious illness, which during the following winter increased so that it became necessary for the Pelowskis to again take her and the child into their own home for proper care. Here they remained until the summer of 1917, when, at the attending physician's suggestion, Machgan rented a place in Montgomery, where it would be more convenient to give Anna the medical attention she needed. The Pelowskis also let their daughter Emily accompany Machgan to Montgomery. Emily nursed Anna and attended to the housework until Anna's death. While living in Montgomery Anna gave birth to a second child. A few weeks thereafter she was taken to a hospital in St. Paul for an operation. While she was at the hospital the infant died and was buried. Within a couple of weeks she was returned to Montgomery, where in a few days she died. Anna's hospital expenses were paid by Machgan's mother. The funeral expenses of Anna and the baby were paid by Pelowski as were also one-half of the medical services rendered by the physician at Montgomery.
Since her mother's death Ethel has been with the Pelowskis, except for visits of some weeks' duration with her father's relatives in St. Paul. Some time after his wife's death, Machgan returned to St. Paul and got work in a shoe factory and in May, 1918, secured a position in the city fire department, where he still remains at a salary of $105 per month. At present he boards with a widowed sister. He has no property or resources except his earnings. He has discharged some of the bills incurred during his wife's illness. The Pelowskis own the 154-acre farm where they reside, valued at $225 per acre. They also have live stock and other personal property estimated at $11,500. They owe $3,000. Mr. Pelowski is 58 and his wife 44 years of age. They have eight children living at home, the eldest, Emily, being 22 and the youngest two years old. Two grown brothers of Mr. Pelowski also share the home. The one is deaf and dumb, and the other is so seriously afflicted with hydrocephalus that he must be cared for like an infant.
In addition to the above uncontroverted facts we consider it established that shortly before Anna's death she requested her parents to rear and educate Ethel, and they agreed to so do and also to will her a share in their estate equal to that of any of their own children, and that Machgan consented to this arrangement.
This bitter contest for the custody of this child has mainly taken the form of an effort on the part of Machgan to show the unfitness of the conditions...
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