Court Opinion

ID: 9858868
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 17:00:35.367407+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:57:11.862028
License: Public Domain

The following opinion was filed March 8, 1960:
Per Curiam
{on motion for rehearing). Counsel for the grandparents, plaintiffs in error, again forcefully urges that the judgment subjects the children to great danger.
Counsel asks that we remand the case for the appointment of a guardian ad litem and (at the expense of plaintiffs in error) of medical experts,_ and that if such experts desire to examine the mother, she come to Wisconsin for such examination at the expense of plaintiffs in error. The fundamental difficulty with the suggestion is that it contemplates, in effect, a new trial in the Wisconsin circuit court of an issue which was decided, even if not upon presentation of all the evidence, in the Kansas district court. This seems particularly inappropriate where the action in Wisconsin was commenced little more than one week after the Kansas judgment, where the mother, the party entitled to custody under the Kansas judgment, would be compelled to fight her battle at a great distance from her home, and where the doctors who observed and treated her, and the medical records are far away in Kansas.
Further reflection has not altered our conclusion that the question of custody ought to be decided in the Kansas court, and counsel has not attempted to show that the law of Kansas would prevent further consideration there. Because of the concern for the welfare of the children engendered by the opinion of the medical witness, however, we have concluded that it will be an appropriate exercise of the power of the Wisconsin court to permit the children to remain in the temporary custody of the grandparents *663bpending institution and disposition of an application to the Kansas court for modification of its judgment in so far as it relates to custody. This will necessitate modifying our mandate so as to reverse the judgment of the circuit court and to give directions to the circuit court so as to effectuate the purpose just mentioned as follows: The children are to remain in the temporary custody of the grandparents for a period of sixty days from the filing of the remittitur from this court. If, within that time, plaintiffs in error shall have made satisfactory proof before the circuit court that either they, or Herman L. Zillmer, or all of them, have made an appropriate application to the district court of Saline county, Kansas, for the modification of the portion of its judgment providing for custody of the children, then the circuit court shall permit the plaintiffs in error to retain temporary custody of the children until such time as the district court denies the application, or modifies its judgment. The circuit court may make reasonable provisions for Mary Louise Zillmer’s visiting the children. If the period of sixty days elapses without proof that the said application has been made, the circuit court is to reinstate its judgment of April 3, 1959, awarding custody to Mary Louise Zillmer. If the application is made but the district court declines to modify its judgment, or if the circuit court at any time finds that the application for modification is not being diligently prosecuted, then the circuit court is to reinstate its said judgment. If the district court in Kansas modifies its judgment with respect to custody, then the circuit court is to enter a judgment herein not inconsistent with the judgment of the district court as modified.
Accordingly, our mandate herein is amended so as to read:
Judgment reversed; cause remanded for further proceedings not inconsistent with the memorandum on rehearing filed herein. No costs allowed to either party in this court.