Case ID: ill-app_189/html/0141-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Mr. Justice Scanlan", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

The People of the State of Illinois ex rel. Winifred E. White, Defendant in Error, v. Marion H. Culver and Morton T. Culver, Plaintiffs in Error.
    Gen. No. 19,642.
    (Not to be reported in full.)
    Abstract of the Decision.
    1. Infants, § 4
      
      —right of parent to custody of child. The right of parents to the custody of a child is not an absolute one that is accorded to them under any and all circumstances; it may be taken away for good and sufficient cause by the paramount right of the State to insist that the safety, morals, health or happiness of the child be not endangered.
    2. Infants, § 4
      
      —when evidence insufficient to sustain finding as to custody of child. In a habeas corpus proceeding by the mother for the custody of her child, a finding that she was legally entitled to its custody held not warranted by the evidence, in view of the testimony as to the fitness of the mother, which showed she did not possess the essential moral character required.
    Error to the Superior Court of Cook county; the Hon. Charles M. Foell, Judge, presiding. Heard in the Branch Appellate Court at the October term, 1913.
    Reversed and remanded.
    Opinion filed October 8, 1914.
    Statement of the Case.
    Petition by Winifred E. White in the name of the People of the State of Illinois against Marion H. Culver and Morton T. Culver for a writ of habeas corpus to obtain the possession and custody of Dorothy Vera White, a young child, the daughter of relatrix. The court found the issues in favor of the relatrix and ordered the respondents to deliver the child to her in open court. From a judgment entered on the findings, respondents prosecute a writ of error.
    Culver, Byron & Culver, for plaintiffs in error.
    Winifred E. White, pro se.
    
    
      
      See Illinois Notes Digest, Vols. XI to XV, and Cumulative Quarterly, same topic and section number.
    
   Mr. Justice Scanlan

delivered the opinion of the court.