Court Opinion

ID: 9588913
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:39:39.272927+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:41:51.544048
License: Public Domain

Carrico, J.,
dissenting.
I dissented in White v. White, 215 Va. 765, 213 S.E.2d 766 (1975), which the majority says is “strikingly similar” to this case and upon which it predicates its present holding. My concern in White was that the majority, without saying so, had abandoned the rule recognized in Mullen v. Mullen, 188 Va. 259, 270, 49 S.E.2d 349, 354 (1948), that the mother is the natural custodian of her child of tender years. The present holding is yet another departure from Mullen, and I cannot subscribe to the further erosion of its salutary rule.
I’Anson, C.J., joins in this dissent.