Family court

“ When a lawsuit arises out of complicated family disputes, such as those concerned with inheritance and adoption, there are sometimes representatives of four generations in the court at the same time. Babes and small children, if their rights or interests are in any way involved, are brought into court by their mothers, not with any idea that the evidence of infants would be accepted, even if it could be intelligibly given, but merely in order that the magistrate may see that the children really exist and have not been invented for the occasion. ”

“ The child removal process is long, potentially taking many months before the Family Court will determine whether a child should be returned to her mother. A parent's desire to have her children returned quickly often leads to the mother being forced to follow the instructions of ACS workers in order to avoid arduous court proceedings. Even assuming that a state tribunal would eventually have an opportunity to interpret the relevant statutes, the likely harm to the plaintiffs from the delays and lack of effective representation is "so serious ... ”

“ Yet who doubts that among the rich as well as among the poor such judicial protection and care of the children, whom the broken family leaves without true parental care, is needed? To give children into the hands of either parent alone is in many such cases no fitting substitute for the normal home influence. In any case, there should be an external 242conscience and an external solicitude enlisted in the interest of every child whose parents have made such a failure of marriage and the home that the divorce court is the only refuge. ”

“ The result of these inadequacies in providing even minimally adequate counsel for mothers is that members of subclass A are consistently deprived of their constitutional procedural rights of due process and their constitutional substantive rights to be joined as a family with their children. ”

“ The custody of children is given to the party who has obtained the divorce, unless the court, on the application of the family, or the ministère public, consider it better, in the interests of the children, that custody should be given to the other party or a third person; but in every case the right of both father and mother to supervise the maintenance and education of the children, and their liability to contribute to their support, are continued. ”

“ The obligation of the father where his paternity has been judicially established in his lifetime or has been acknowledged by him in writing or by the part performance of his obligations is enforceable against his estate in such an amount as the court may determine, having regard to the age of the child, the ability of the mother to support it, the amount of property left by the father, the number, age, and financial condition of the lawful issue, if any, and the rights of the widow, if any. ”

“ The legislature may provide by law that a family court has jurisdiction of cases involving title to movable and immovable property when those cases relate to the partition of community property and the settlement of claims arising from matrimonial regimes when such action arises as a result of divorce or annulment of marriage. ”

“ But presumptions notwithstanding, we should recognize that there may be circumstances in which a child has a stronger interest at stake than mere protection from serious harm caused by the termination of visitation by a "person" other than a parent. The almost infinite variety of family relationships that pervade our ever-changing society strongly counsel against the creation by this Court of a constitutional rule that treats a biological parent's liberty interest in the care and supervision of her child as an isolated right that may be exercised arbitrarily. ”

“ The court is empowered to grant a divorce from bed and board, but not from the bond of wedlock, "if any husband shall, maliciously, either (1) abandon his family, or (2) turn his wife out of doors, or (3) by cruel and barbarous treatment endanger her life, or (4) offer such indignities to her person, as to render her condition intolerable, or life burdensome, and thereby force her to withdraw from his house and family." ”

“ Earlier and Better Use of Domestic Relations Court.—Another way by which society should undertake to supply in newer and more democratic forms the supervision, the control, and the support to the individual married couple and their children, which the older collective family organization sought to supply, is an earlier and a better use of the Domestic Relations Court, or of some advisory agency to prevent the breaking up of families. ”

“ Out of choice, necessity, or a sense of family responsibility, it has been common for close relatives to draw together and participate in the duties and the satisfactions of a common home. Decisions concerning child rearing, which Yoder, Meyer, Pierce and other cases have recognized as entitled to constitutional protection, long have been shared with grandparents or other relatives who occupy the same household--indeed who may take on major responsibility for the rearing of the children. ”

“ The vast majority of these voluntarily informed parents are women who are divorced or separated from spouses whom they have not seen in years. Going to court to avoid notifying the other parent burdens the privacy of both the minor and the accompanying parent. The custodial parents are angry that their consent is not sufficient and fear that notification will bring the absent parent back into the family in an intrusive and abusive way. ”

“ It has exclusive jurisdiction in all divorce and alimony cases, and all matters coming under the Juvenile Court Act. It also has jurisdiction in cases of failure to provide. The ideal court would include in connection with the foregoing functions, adoption of children, the issuing of marriage licenses, and bastardy cases." [49]
One advantage of this plan is the economy it effects in the time of probation officers. ”

“ Several decisions of this Court make clear that freedom of personal choice in matters of marriage and family life is one of the liberties protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. ”

“ Custody is viewed not with the idea of adjudicating rights in the children, as if they were chattels, but rather with the idea of making the best disposition possible for the welfare of the children. To speak of a court's 'cutting off' a mother's right to custody of her children, as if it raised problems similar to those involved in 'cutting off' her rights in a plot of ground, is to obliterate these obvious distinctions. Personal jurisdiction of all parties to be affected by a proceeding is highly desirable, to make certain that they have had valid notice and opportunity to be heard. ”

“ Fathers and mothers are given equal guardianship of children in the District of Columbia and nine States—Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New York and Washington. (See Pennsylvania.) In all others the father has the sole custody and control of the persons, education, earnings and estates of minor children. Where this right is abused the mother can obtain custody only by applying for separation or divorce or proving in court the unfitness of the father. ”

“ At stake in this case is the welfare of a child. More immediately the question before us is what restriction, if any, does the Constitution of the United States impose on a state court when it is determining the custody of a child before it. ”

“ The same statute also empowers the high court of justice, “on being satisfied that it is for the welfare of the infant,” to “remove from his office any testamentary guardian or any guardian appointed or acting by virtue of this act,” and also to appoint another in place of the guardian so removed.
The same statute gives power to a court sitting in divorce practically to take away from a parent guilty of a matrimonial offence all rights of guardianship. ”

“ A father's right to the custody of his own children being founded in law on the right of guardianship, this being taken away, they may of course be severed from him, and put by the authority of the court, into more orthodox hands. ”

“ But this question is not before us, unless we have power by writ of error to re-examine the judgment given by the circuit court, and to affirm or reverse it, as we may find it to be correct or otherwise.' He then proceeds to say that the appellate jurisdiction of the supreme court is governed by the amount or value in controversy, and adds: 'In the case before us, the controversy is between the father and mother of an infant daughter. They are living separate from each other, and each claiming the right to the custody, care, and society of their child. ”

“ Although the wife cannot maintain an action, in relation either to her dotal or to her paraphernal property, against a third person, unless authorized by her husband, or, if he fails to do it, by a judge, yet she may, with the authorization of the court in which she brings the action, sue her husband 'for the separation of property, or for the restitution and enjoyment of her paraphernal property.' Code Pr. ”

“ I am of opinion that no such right or power exists in law. I am 145of opinion that no such right ever did exist in our law. Whatever authorities may be quoted for any such proposition, it has always been subject to this condition: that where she has a complaint of, or is apprehensive of, ill-usage, the Court will never interfere to compel her to return to her husband’s custody. ”

“ If any woman, within a year after the death of her husband, should marry another, or commit adultery, the children by her first marriage shall receive half of her property; or, if there are no children, the nearest heirs of the deceased husband shall receive half of her property, by order of the court. We have especially prescribed this penalty lest the woman, having been left pregnant by her husband, and desiring to enter into a second marriage, should destroy her unborn offspring. ”

“ A husband has a freehold estate in his wife's lands as long as they both live.
[304]
Money earned by a married woman belongs absolutely to her husband.
By her husband's particular permission, she may make a will; but he may revoke his permission at any time before probate,—that is, before the will is exhibited and proved,—even if after the wife's death.
The custody of a child belongs to the father. The mother has no right of control. The father may dispose of it as he sees fit. ”

“ This is particularly true where, as here, the estrangement of husband and wife beclouds parental judgment with emotion and prejudice. In Virginia, the parents cannot make agreements which will bind courts to decide a custody case one way or the other. The Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals has emphasized this deep-rooted Virginia policy by declaring: 'The custody and welfare of children are not the subject of barter.' Buchanan v. ”

“ But 'the inherent rights of parents to enjoy the society and association of their offspring with reasonable opportunity to impress upon them a father's or a mother's love and affection in their upbringing, must be regarded as being of an equally important, if not controlling, consideration in adjusting the right of custody as between parents in ordinary cases.' Frazier v. Frazier, 109 Fla. at page 169, 147 So. at page 466. Facts which have arisen since the original decree are one basis for modification of the custody decree. ”

“ So also when a supposed second marriage is dissolved, because entered into by mistake while the former wife or husband was living, the children are regarded as the legitimate issue of the parent who at the time of the marriage was capable of contracting, provided the union was made in good faith. [111] When the validity of a marriage or the effect of any former decree of divorce or nullity is doubted, the question may be tried by the court on filing a libel, as in case of divorce. [112] Sometimes the husband and wife are expressly allowed to be witnesses in the suit ”

“ The society voluntarily took the child there with the intention that it should remain. Through imposition the child was placed in custody of those unfit to receive or maintain control over it, and, as above stated, came into the custody and possession of the respondent.
The child was within the jurisdiction of the court under such circumstances that rival claimants of the right of custody might invoke the jurisdiction of a competent court of the territory to determine, not the right of personal freedom, but to which custodian a child of tender years should be committed. ”