Court Opinion

ID: 9852171
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 05:25:55.364574+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:22:23.708622
License: Public Domain

GUNTER, Justice,
dissenting. This habeas corpus case involves a contest for possession and custody of a minor child between the appellant-mother and the appellee-paternal grandmother of the child.
Custody of the child had previously been awarded to the appellee by the decree of a Maryland court. That decree provided for visitation rights in the appellant, and after a visit by the child with the appellant in Glynn County, Georgia, the appellant refused to return possession of the child to the appellee. The appellee brought this habeas corpus action below to recover possession of the child and relied on a certified copy of the Maryland court’s decree *84awarding custody to her. The appellant contended that there had been a change of conditions since the rendition of the Maryland court’s decree, that the habeas corpus court should hear evidence on this issue, and that the habeas corpus court should then award custody of the child to the appellant.
After introduction of the foreign court decree in evidence, the trial judge declined to hear evidence on the issue of a change in conditions since the rendition of that decree, and he entered a judgment awarding custody of the child to the appellee. The appellant has come to this court, contending that the habeas corpus court had jurisdiction to determine the issue of "change in condition,”and that it was error for the court not to hear evidence and rule on that issue.
A majority of this court has reversed that judgment. I disagree with the majority, and I respectfully dissent.
I concede that the habeas corpus court has jurisdiction to determine the issue of illegal detention of the child, because the child is alleged to be illegally detained in Glynn County, Georgia. However, after the evidence showed that the child was detained in Glynn County, Georgia, in violation of a court decree of another state, the habeas corpus court at that point was required to accord full faith and credit to that decree.
Our law confers jurisdiction in habeas corpus cases in the superior court circuit where the illegal detention exists. Code § 50-103. But to my mind such jurisdiction is limited. When a respondent in a habeas corpus case admits that the child has been purloined from the custody of the applicant or that the child is withheld from the custody of the applicant in violation of a decree of another court awarding custody to the applicant, then the habeas corpus court does not have jurisdiction to determine the issue of "change in condition” which must have come about since the rendition of the foreign decree. In short, a respondent in a habeas corpus action should *85not be able to steal a child or withhold a child in violation of a valid decree of a court and thereby confer jurisdiction in the forum of the respondent’s choice in order to litigate the "change in condition” issue. See my dissenting opinion in Smith v. Smith, 229 Ga. 580 (193 SE2d 599).
The rule expounded and pursued by the majority permits a respondent in a habeas corpus action by his illegal act, or his act in violation of a decree of another court, to confer jurisdiction in the habeas corpus court to the detriment of the applicant who is legally entitled to the possession and custody of the child. If custody is to be litigated again on the change of condition issue, then it must be relitigated in the forum of the applicant entitled by a former court decree to custody, if that forum is different from the forum where the illegal detention has taken place.
I am of the opinion that our Code § 50-121 is applicable only where there is no existing court decree awarding custody of the child and where it is shown that the presence of the child within the jurisdiction of the habeas corpus court was not caused by stealing the child or retaining the child within that jurisdiction in violation of another court decree.
I am of the opinion in this case that the Maryland decree was entitled to full faith and credit in the Georgia court and that the judgment below was correct.
I respectfully dissent.
I am authorized to state that Justice Jordan joins in this dissent.