DocketNumber: No. 3372
Citation Numbers: 155 Ga. 390, 117 S.E. 327, 1923 Ga. LEXIS 78
Judges: Beck
Filed Date: 4/10/1923
Status: Precedential
Modified Date: 10/19/2024
M. E. Garrett brought a petition to the superior court of Chatham County, under section 3016 of the Civil Code, for the adoption of a child by the name of Harold Butler. The petition alleged that the father was dead or had abandoned his family, and that the mother abandoned the child, which had been in the custody and control of petitioner for five or six years prior to the bringing of the petition for adoption, and that petitioner and his wife had become deeply attached to the child, which affection was reciprocated; that the child had been left with petitioner by its mother in Savannah several years before; that the. mother had left the city, and petitioner had'been unable to locate her, although he made every effort to do so; that petitioner, after he had made repeated efforts to get in communication with the mother and failed to locate her, had applied to the juvenile court of Chatham County for direction and advice, and that the court had taken jurisdiction of the case; that the judge of the juvenile court, after a hearing at which the mother was present and rep
Mrs. E. P. Jernigan, the mother of the child, 'filed a special plea stating that “ This court is powerless to interfere,” for the reason that on February 1,1915, the superior court of Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, .rendered a decree giving the custody of the child to his mother, then Mrs. Butler, now Mrs. Jernigan.. The defendant also entered a demand for a jury trial on the question of abandonment and other questions of fact involving the defendant’s unfitness to have the child.
Evidence' was adduced upon the trial of the case, on" the question of abandoment, the mother’s unfitness to care for the child, and all other matters of fact. A number of witnesses testified, and a great deal of ' documentary evidence was submitted. None of this evidence is before the Supreme Court. The judge of the. superior court, without the intervention of a jury, heard the case and decided that the abandonment by the mother had not been sufficiently proved to declare an adoption, but ordered that the child remain in the custody of the petitioner, where it had been for a number of years, providing that the mother of the child'; be allowed to visit the child at such times and places as were ■ proper, and specifically giving her the opportunity 'of seeing the • child, three afternoons each week. Mrs. Jernigan excepted!'
Section 3016 of the Civil Code relates to' the mode of adopting, a child. . It provides .that, ány person desirous of adopting a child,
The decree of the New Hampshire Court awarding the custody of the child to Mrs. Jernigan did not preclude action by the superior court of Chatham County upon the question of awarding the child to the applicant. Under the full-faith-and-credit provision of the constitution of the United States, the decree did place the custody and control of the child in Mrs. Jernigan at the time at which' the decree was rendered; but more than five years from the date of that decree had elapsed, and evidence showing changed conditions, and that Mrs. Jernigan had become an improper person to have charge and custody of the child, would authorize the award of the custody of the child to another person. The applicant in this case alleges facts showing that Mrs. Jernigan, the mother of the child, should not have custody of it,
The ruling made in headnote 4 requires no elaboration.
Judgment affirmed.