State ex rel. Monroe v. Ford

• Decision Date: 11 July 1927
• Docket Number: 28417
• Citation: 113 So. 798,164 La. 149
• Court: Louisiana Supreme Court
• Parties: STATE ex rel. MONROE et ux. v. FORD

113 So. 798

164 La. 149

STATE ex rel. MONROE et ux. v. FORD

No. 28417

Supreme Court of Louisiana

July 11, 1927

Appeal from Fourteenth Judicial District Court, Parish of Beauregard; Thos. F. Porter, Jr., Judge.

Proceedings by the State, on the relation of Osman Monroe and wife against J. D. Ford for habeas corpus to regain possession of relators' minor child. Judgment for defendant, and relators appeal.

Judgment appealed from set aside, and possession of the minor child ordered restored to relators.

J. A Williams, of Lake Charles, and C. D. Reed, of Oakdale, for appellants.

Ped C Kay, of De Ridder, for appellee.

OPINION

ROGERS, J.

Relators seek by habeas corpus to regain possession of one of their children, a son, 2 years of age. Respondent received the child from the Louisiana Children's Home Society, Inc., of Jennings. In his answer, he alleges that the child was surrendered by his father to said society, which, in turn, through its proper officer, executed an act of adoption to him. That the relator, Mrs. Olivia Monroe, is insane and not mentally, physically, or financially capable or able to attend to the needs of her child.

The court below gave judgment for defendant, and relators appealed.

In the latter part of the year 1924, the relator Mrs. Olivia Monroe suffered from epileptic convulsions. On January 16, 1925, under the provisions of Act 68 of 1918, she was adjudged insane and committed to the Louisiana Hospital for Insane, at Pineville, where she remained until May 8, 1925, when she was discharged as "improved."

On January 29, 1925, while she was in the hospital, her husband, the other relator, placed three of their four children in the custody of the Children's Home Society, Inc., at Jennings. At that time, by separate authentic acts, he declared that he surrendered and abandoned the guardianship of the children to the said society, giving that organization the right to find homes for them, to cause them to be adopted, and to execute the necessary acts of adoption. He further declared, in said instruments, that his wife was insane and a permanent ward of the Insane Hospital at Pineville.

On October 6, 1925, the Children's Home Society, Inc., acting through its superintendent, executed an act of adoption of the child whose custody is in dispute herein to Mrs. Laura E. Ford, wife of the defendant, of De Ridder, La.

As soon as Mrs. Monroe, the relator, was discharged from the hospital and had returned to her home at Oberlin, La., she sought to obtain possession of her children. It appears, however, that the society to which they had been delivered declined to furnish her with any information concerning them. Having learned that defendant and his wife were in possession of one of the children, relators, on May 19, 1926, instituted these proceedings for its custody. Three days thereafter, defendant by authentic act ratified and confirmed the act of adoption by his wife.

In his reasons for judgment, the district judge declared that the only concern of the court was the correct determination of the question of who is or has the legal right to the custody of the child. In resolving that issue in favor of the respondent, he held that the father was the only parent legally capable of acting, since the mother was crazy and confined in an institution for the insane; and that he had surrendered his right to the child in favor of the Children's Home Society by signing the authentic act of January 29, 1925. The judge remarked, en passant, that independently of the legal question involved the interest of the child will be served better by permitting it to remain with the defendant, a man of substance, whose home is immeasurably superior to the home of its parents.

Act 48 of 1924, amending and re-enacting Act 31 of 1872, sets forth the manner of adopting children. It provides, among other things, that if the child shall have a parent or parents the concurrence of such parent or parents shall be obtained to the adoption, and, as an evidence thereof, such parent or parents shall be required to sign the act. It provides, also, that in the event a child shall have been abandoned by its parents, or by the father, if the mother be dead, or by the mother, if the father be dead or unknown, to a charitable institution, the authorized representative or officer of the said institution shall have the right to sign the act of adoption of the abandoned child with the same legal effect as if it had been signed by its parent or parents.

These provisions of the statute are invoked by defendant in support of his contention that the child presently in his possession occupied the status of an abandoned child because of the insanity of the mother and under the declarations of its father in the instrument of January 25, 1925; and that the society to which it was so abandoned was legally empowered to execute, through its superintendent, the act of adoption in behalf of the child.

It is unnecessary to consider the legal effect of the written relinquishment of the custody of his child by the father for, under the very terms of the statute itself, where the...