Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/371/187/
Timestamp: 2019-04-21 08:13:28+00:00

Document:
After being informed that a husband and his estranged wife had reached an agreement concerning the custody of their children, a Virginia court dismissed a petition for habeas corpus which had been filed by the husband in order to obtain their custody. Subsequently, while the children were with their mother in South Carolina, she sued in a court of that State to have full custody awarded to her, and that was done in a proceeding in which the husband appeared and contended that it was a violation of the agreement reached in Virginia which was the basis of the Virginia court's order of dismissal. The Supreme Court of South Carolina reversed, on the ground that the judgment of the Virginia court was res judicata and binding on the South Carolina courts under the Full Faith and Credit Clause of the Federal Constitution, in the absence of a change of circumstances warranting a change of the custody of the children.
Held: Even if the Full Faith and Credit Clause is applicable to cases involving custody of children, the courts of South Carolina were not bound by the Virginia order of dismissal here, since that order was not res judicata in Virginia. Pp. 371 U. S. 187-194.
239 S.C. 305, 123 S.E.2d 33, reversed.
"It being represented to the court by counsel that the parties hereto have agreed concerning the custody of the infant children, it is ordered that this case be dismissed."
". . . Plaintiff has violated and breached the agreement made between the parties by and with their respective legal counsel and further violated the Order of the Court of record in Richmond, Virginia that was duly issued and based upon said agreement."
After hearing testimony from 11 witnesses including the husband and wife, the trial judge found as a fact that, while both the father and mother were fit persons to have the children, it was "to the best interest of the children that the mother have custody and control." The judge also rejected the husband's argument that the order of dismissal in the Virginia court should be treated as res judicata of the issue of fitness before the South Carolina court.
attorneys and the defendant's attorneys would be unfair to the children, and too harsh a rule to follow."
"If the respondent [the wife] here had instituted in the Courts of Virginia the action commenced by her in the Courts of this State, the appellant could have successfully interposed a plea of res judicata as a defense to said action. Since the judgment entered in the Virginia Court by agreement or consent is res judicata in that State, it is res judicata and entitled to full faith and credit in this State. We are required under Art. IV, Sec. 1 of the Constitution of the United States to give the same faith and credit in this State to the 'dismissed agreed' order or judgment as 'by law or usage' the Courts of Virginia would give to such order or judgment."
239 S.C. at 317, 123 S.E.2d at 39. We granted certiorari to consider this question of full faith and credit upon which the South Carolina Supreme Court's judgment rests. 369 U.S. 801 (1962).
nor proof of any changed circumstances authorizing a change of the custody of the minor children of the parties to this action."
"It was further submitted that the Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court of Greenville County must recognize, in accordance with the full faith and credit clause of the Constitution of the United States, the agreed Order of Dismissal of the Virginia Court, and that such was res judicata, unless there was evidence of subsequent misconduct on the part of the appellant or a change of conditions warranting a change of the custody of the children."
done under South Carolina law had it not so interpreted the Full Faith and Credit Clause.
does not treat a contract between the parents as a bar to the court's jurisdiction in custody cases, [Footnote 6] would similarly not treat as res judicata the dismissal in this case.
"In Virginia, we have established the rule that the welfare of the infant is the primary, paramount, and controlling consideration of the court in all controversies between parents over the custody of their minor children. All other matters are subordinate."
Mullen v. Mullen, 188 Va. 259, 269, 49 S.E.2d 349, 354 (1948). Unfortunately, experience has shown that the question of custody, so vital to a child's happiness and wellbeing, frequently cannot be left to the discretion of parents. 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. Buchanan, 170 Va. 458, 477, 197 S.E. 426, 434 (1938).
Whatever a Virginia court might do in a case where another court had exercised its considered judgment before awarding custody, [Footnote 8] we do not believe that, in view of Virginia's strong policy of safeguarding the welfare of the child, a court of that State would consider itself bound by a mere order of dismissal where, as here, the trial judge never even saw, much less passed upon, the parents' private agreement for custody, and heard no testimony whatever upon which to base a judgment as to what would be best for the children.
We hold that the courts of South Carolina were not precluded by the Full Faith and Credit Clause from determining the best interest of these children and entering a decree accordingly. In holding otherwise, the South Carolina Supreme Court was in error. The case is reversed and remanded to that court for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion.
The statute passed under this authority is found at 28 U.S.C. § 1738.
We have held that a court in one State can so modify a custody decree made in another State. New York ex rel. Halvey v. Halvey, 330 U. S. 610 (1947).
Kovacs v. Brewer, 356 U. S. 604, 356 U. S. 607 (1958); New York ex rel. Halvey v. Halvey, 330 U. S. 610, 330 U. S. 615-616 (1947).
Murden v. Wilbert, 189 Va. 358, 53 S.E.2d 42 (1949) (negligence action arising out of automobile accident); Hinton v. Norfolk & W. R. Co., 137 Va. 605, 120 S.E. 135 (1923) (personal injury suit); Bardach Iron & Steel Co. v. Tenenbaum, 136 Va. 163, 118 S.E. 502 (1923) (seller's suit for buyer's breach of contract).
Ibid. In a fourth case mentioned in the South Carolina opinion, Virginia Concrete Co. v. Board of Supervisors, 197 Va. 821, 91 S.E.2d 415 (1956), the dismissal was at the motion of plaintiff's counsel and was "with prejudice."
Gloth v. Gloth, 154 Va. 511, 551, 153 S.E. 879, 892 (1930).
See 17A Am.Jur., Divorce and Separation, § 818 (1957) and cases there collected.
A custody decree entered by a Virginia court "ordinarily" will not be altered in the absence of changed circumstances. E.g., Collins v. Collins, 183 Va. 408, 32 S.E.2d 657 (1945); Darnell v. Barker, 179 Va. 86, 18 S.E.2d 271 (1942). Even where there is such a decree, it is arguable that Virginia courts do, in fact, make de novo reviews of the correctness of the original decrees. See Semmes v. Semmes, 201 Va. 117, 109 S.E.2d 545 (1959); Andrews v. Geyer, 200 Va. 107, 104 S.E.2d 747 (1958).

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