State ex rel. Norris v. Graham
| Decision Date | 12 March 1917 |
| Docket Number | 22306 |
| Citation | 141 La. 73,74 So. 635 |
| Court | Louisiana Supreme Court |
| Parties | STATE ex rel. NORRIS v. GRAHAM |
(Syllabus by the Court.)
The juvenile court for the parish of Washington has no jurisdiction over a mother and child, residents of the parish of St. Tammany; and their forced, or transient presence in the former, conferred no jurisdiction on the local court over them.
Sidney W. Provensal, of Slidell, for appellant.
Ott & Johnson, of Franklinton, for appellee.
Defendant appeals from a judgment depriving her of the custody of her child, Clay Goings, by a former marriage, on the ground of her moral unfitness, and awarding the custody of the boy to one Quincy Norris.
The appellant assigns as error the overruling of her exception to the jurisdiction of the court, which reads in part as follows:
'That this honorable court acting in the parish of Washington has no jurisdiction; that she and her husband are residents of the parish of St. Tammany, La; that the child mentioned in the affidavit, her son Clay Goings, was with her in the said parish of St. Tammany; and that she brought him to this honorable court in answer to a habeas corpus which was dismissed; and while she was in the parish of Washington, the present affidavit was filed.'
The minutes of the court of date September 18, 1916, contain the following entries:
'On motion of Ott & Johnson, counsel for plaintiff, Quincy Norris, the writ of habeas corpus previously filed herein is dismissed at mover's costs.'
On the same day the case presented by the affidavit of Quincy Norris, to deprive Mrs. Graham of the custody of her child, was taken up and proceeded with as shown by the following minute entries:
'This matter is taken up and testimony heard, and the child, Clay Goings, is left in the custody of Quincy Norris pending the settlement of this matter.
'By agreement of counsel, the assignment of the case is stricken out, and the case set for Tuesday, September 26, 1916, at 10 o'clock a. m.'
When the juvenile court convened on September 28, 1916, counsel for defendant filed the exception to the jurisdiction of the court, which was taken up and overruled by the presiding judge. Defendant thereupon filed an answer to the charges contained in the affidavit, and the case was taken up and proceeded with, the testimony of plaintiff's witnesses was heard, and the case left open for witnesses for the defendant, said witnesses to be heard by agreement at Slidell, La.
Here the minute entries close.
It appears from the statement of facts in the record, signed by counsel for both parties, that the judge heard the defendant's witnesses at Slidell, and that no witness appeared against her.
On October 3, 1916, the juvenile court, after expressing the opinion based on the evidence, 'that the health, morals, and physical well-being of the child, Clay Goings, would be jeopardized if placed in the custody of its mother,' ordered and decreed that the care and custody of the child be awarded to Quincy Norris.
It appears from the statement of facts that in the year 1913 the defendant, recently divorced from her second...
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