Title: Kroll v. Kroll

State: oregon

Issuer: Oregon Supreme Court

Document:

Affirmed November 10, 1965.
Robert L. Olson, Portland, argued the cause and submitted a brief for appellant.
David O. Bennett, St. Helens, argued the cause for respondent. With him on the brief were Bennett & Vagt.
Before McALLISTER, Chief Justice, and PERRY, DENECKE, HOLMAN and SCHWAB, Justices.
AFFIRMED.
SCHWAB, J. (Pro Tempore)
This is a suit for divorce brought by the husband, William Kroll, against his wife, Sharon Kroll, in which *577 the defendant filed a cross-complaint also praying for a divorce. Both parties sought custody of the minor son of the parties who was three years old at the time the complaint was filed on October 28, 1963.
The decree of the trial court granted the plaintiff a divorce and custody of his son. The defendant has appealed only from that part of the decree which awarded custody of the child to her husband. The trial judge placed the child in the custody of its father because of emotional instability on the part of the mother demonstrated not only by her continued relationships with another man, but by other conduct as well.
Defendant relies heavily on a line of cases which place great stress on the following statement contained in Goldson v. Goldson, 192 Or 611, 621, 236 P2d 314: "The moral unfitness of a mother sufficient to deprive her of custody must be such as to have a direct bearing upon the welfare of her child." This statement, which is quoted or referred to in a number of the cases cited by defendant, is expressly overruled by Shrout v. Shrout, 224 Or 521, 525-26, 356 P2d 935, in which this court went on to say:
In reviewing this case we are guided by the rule laid down in Henry v. Henry, 156 Or 679, 683, 69 P2d 280:
1. For, as we said in Shrout v. Shrout, supra at p. 527:
2. We have carefully examined the entire record of this case. As the trial judge stated in his opinion from the bench, "there is no easy answer to this problem and I know it, and decisions such as this are not easy on my part. However, the decision has to be made *579 and all I can do is, as honestly as I know how, reach a decision based on the evidence of this case." The evidence amply demonstrates that the trial judge reached the correct decision.
The decree is affirmed.