Case Name: Granville Ray CLEETON v. Sonja Petersen CLEETON
Court: Louisiana Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Louisiana
Decision Date: 1979-12-13
Citations: 383 So. 2d 1231
Docket Number: No. 64649
Parties: Granville Ray CLEETON v. Sonja Petersen CLEETON.
Judges: DIXON and CALOGERO, JJ., dissent.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 383
Pages: 1231–1236

Head Matter:
Granville Ray CLEETON v. Sonja Petersen CLEETON.
No. 64649.
Supreme Court of Louisiana.
Dec. 13, 1979.
On Rehearing May 19, 1980.
Philip P. Spencer, New Orleans, for plaintiff-applicant.
Wendell E. Tanner, Slidell, for defendant-respondent.

Opinion:
SUMMERS, Chief Justice.
Granville Ray Cleeton and Sonja Petersen Cleeton were married at Mexico, Missouri, on July 4, 1961. Three daughters were born of this marriage, who in March 1978 were 15, 10 and 7 years of age. On May 22, 1976 the parties separated. Neither sued for a separation from bed and board, the husband moving to St. Bernard Parish and the wife and children remaining in the house belonging to the community in Slidell, St. Tammany Parish.
Thereafter the estranged couple sold the Slidell house occupied by the wife and children, and the wife and children occupied a rented apartment while the husband continued to reside in St. Bernard Parish where he was employed as manager of a variety department store.
In late November 1976, about six months after her separation, Mrs. Cleeton met Dave Breedlove, a married man living apart from his wife and children, whom he visited once, a year at Christmas time. They began to see each other regularly. From at least November 1977 until the beginning of April 1978, Mrs. Cleeton and Breedlove spent at least one night together each week in Mrs. Cleeton's apartment with the children present. In addition, at times they were away together on weekends while the_ children visited their father. During one Mar-di Gras season Breedlove spent at least four or five days with Mrs. Cleeton and the children. He left clothes and toilet articles at the apartment and was regularly there when their father arrived to take the children for weekends and other visitations with him. On one such occasion Mr. Clee-ton observed Breedlove asleep in Mrs. Clee-ton's bedroom.
From time to time Breedlove ate with Mrs. Cleeton and the children, bringing food and presents to them. They were often together in public places.
Breedlove's open association with Mrs. Cleeton and her children did not cease until suit demanding a change of child custody was filed against her by her husband. Furthermore, it is significant to note that Mrs. Cleeton found nothing wrong with this arrangement.
At the hearing Mr. Cleeton established that he had been regularly employed for 27 years, earned $31,000 per annum and was able to provide a home for the children under proper care and supervision should he be awarded their custody. His testimony was without contradiction and was, in fact, conceded by Mrs. Cleeton. The only testimony militating against Mr. Cleeton's claim for custody was the self-serving statement of Mrs. Cleeton that the children wanted to stay with her.
At the conclusion of the hearing the trial judge dismissed Mr. Cleeton's rule for custody and granted custody to Mrs. Cleeton. The same evidence, by stipulation, was considered by the judge in rendering a judgment of divorce in favor of Mr. Cleeton.
In deciding that Mrs. Cleeton should have custody of the children, the trial judge considered in this "close case" that Mrs. Clee-ton was providing a good home and was caring for and educating her daughters. "The only thing that's wrong with her lifestyle is that, whether some of the more progressive people care to admit it or not, there are moral principles accepted by our society and they are at present against any lifestyle that would, as I understand the law, allow a woman to live with a man in open concubinage."
He then proceeded to find that Mr. Clee-ton could Very quickly provide a very good home for the children and a proper environment for their upbringing. Finding that the relationship between Breedlove and Mrs. Cleeton could not long continue without having some adverse effect on the children "for the rest of their lives," he nevertheless decided that the state of open concubinage in which Mrs. Cleeton had lived for at least six months did not outweigh the other favorable factors involved in Mrs. Cleeton's relationship with her children.
In conclusion the trial judge admonished Mrs. Cleeton that if her lifestyle with Breedlove continued the question of the children's welfare would be brought before the court in his capacity as Juvenile Judge, and he would declare them wards of the court, inferentially indicating that she would be deprived of their custody. As we understand his decision, the trial judge was of the opinion that the adverse effects on children involved in such a relationship had not yet influenced the Cleeton girls.
On appeal the First Circuit, in a unanimous opinion, reversed the decree of custody and awarded custody to the father. The case was then remanded to the trial court to fix the visitation rights of Mrs. Cleeton. 369 So.2d 1072. The Court of Appeal restated long prevailing principles which ordain that in matters of child custody trial courts are vested with considerable discretion; the mother is preferred as custodian of children of tender years, unless she is unfit and her conduct affects the children adversely; the paramount consideration is the welfare of the children; decisions must be based upon the particular facts and circumstances of each case; moral values of parents are likely to be reflected in their children when they become adults; and a heavy burden is imposed upon the party seeking to change custody to establish, not only that the present circumstances are harmful to the physical or moral welfare of the children, it must be shown that a better and more wholesome atmosphere can be provided. 369 So.2d 1075.
On these principles the Court of Appeal declared it had no hesitance in concluding that Mrs. Cleeton's conduct could not provide the wholesome atmosphere her children were entitled to. She made no effort, the Court found, to conceal her illicit rela tionship with Breedlove until her husband sued for divorce and custody of the children. According to the Court of Appeal, Mrs. Cleeton permitted Breedlove to stand in loco parentis with her children, conferring upon him regular access to their home, permitting him the privilege of intimate relations with their mother, and otherwise accepting him as a member of the family unit.
The court likened the case to Morris v. Morris, 152 So.2d 291 (La.App.1963) where the trial court granted the husband a divorce on the ground of adultery but awarded the wife custody of the minor children. In Morris this same circuit held that the trial court erred in granting the wife custody of the children where the evidence indicated that the wife was guilty of a calculated, continuous course of misconduct of such an open and public nature involving intimate relations with a married man as to render her unsuitable as custodian of her children.
In the instant case the burden imposed upon the husband to establish that the mother was guilty of immoral and illicit conduct is satisfied by the sworn testimony of Mrs. Cleeton. It is therefore unnecessary to dwell on that phase of the case. The issue is whether the mother's illicit, immoral and notoriously public conduct was such that it affected these children of tender and formative years adversely.
Apparently exposure of the' children to their mother's illicit, adulterous arrangement with Breedlove did not impair their accomplishments in school. Their progress there was both commendable and above average. In other respects, the mother's testimony and the testimony, of others support a finding that the children were happy, healthy and well-behaved. It remains therefore, to determine whether the mother's conduct and indiscretions were such that her example would otherwise adversely affect the children.
The effect of conduct of this nature.instilled in the hearts and minds of children of tender years by their mother cannot manifest itself until they attain a stage in life where their physical state permits, and they are called upon to decide, what their own standards of conduct will be. And if we accept, as we do, the premise that an open and notorious adulterous relationship by the mother of children of tender years will influence those children in later life to consider such conduct acceptable, we must then decide the effect in law of that standard.
Adultery on the part of one of the spouses is a cause for the other to claim an immediate divorce. La.Civil Code art. 139. While it was, at the time of this liaison, a principle of the Civil Code that the custody of the children be awarded to the spouse in whose favor the decree of divorce was granted, it is now prescribed that custody shall be awarded to the husband or wife in accordance with the best interest of the child. La.Civil Code art. 157.
Adultery of the mother, especially when it is open and public for a substantial period of time, in total disregard of the moral principles of society, has repeatedly been held to establish that the mother is morally unfit to maintain custody of her children. La.Civil Code art. 157; Beck v. Beck, 341 So.2d 580 (La.App.1977); Fontenot v. Fontenot, 315 So.2d 830 (La.App.1975); Kaufman v. Kaufman, 271 So.2d 629 (La.App.1972); Johnson v. Johnson, 268 So.2d 114 (La.App.1972).
Obviously both the Code and numerous decisions of the courts of this State have recognized that adultery is immoral and contrary to acceptable standards of conduct in our society. The trial judge recognized this, and the Court of Appeal did also.
We think the trial judge erred, however, when he decided that the mother's six-month arrangement with her paramour had not yet had an adverse effect upon these young girls. This decision in what he termed a "close case" was apparently based upon the testimony of Mrs. Cleeton elicited by the judge at the hearing. She testified that her bedroom was in the lower level of a split-level apartment, and the children slept on the upper level bedrooms. We think it is unrealistic to conclude from this testimony that the fifteen and ten-year old girls were not aware of the fact that Mrs. Cleeton and her paramour engaged in sexual intercourse while they slept together. Nor is it realistic to conclude that Breed-love's repeated presence in their mother's company did not influence these children adversely and to their detriment, especially the fifteen-year-old.
It was the duty and responsibility of the father of these children to file suit to obtain their custody and remove them from the immoral atmosphere created by the illicit adulterous arrangement of the wife and her paramour. This Court's decision in Fulco v. Fulco, 259 La. 1122, 254 So.2d 603 (1971), relied upon by Mrs, Cleeton, is factually distinguishable from the case at bar, although that case does recognize that the mother's right to custody should be denied where she is morally unfit, or where she engages in a calculated and continued public course of immoral conduct. That is the distinction to be drawn here. In Fulco the evidence was that the mother's consort frequently spent late evenings at her home and at least once spent the night with her; and on at least two occasions they spent weekends together out of town. This conduct is, of course, entirely different from Mrs. Cleeton's lengthy arrangement with her lover as the facts already set forth demonstrate. Mrs. Cleeton's arrangement was not a casual affair, it was such as this Court reprobated in Fulco: a situation in which she engaged in a calculated and continued public course of immoral conduct.
For the reasons assigned, the judgment of the Court of Appeal is affirmed,
DIXON and CALOGERO, JJ., dissent.
DENNIS, J., dissents with reasons.
Judge Patrick M. Schott participated in this decision as Associate Justice ad hoc.