Court Opinion

ID: 9763806
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 02:56:11.953461+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:49.745239
License: Public Domain

BARROW, Chief Justice
(concurring and dissenting in part).
I concur in the holding that the trial court erred in declaring appellant an unfit mother; however, I respectfully dissent from the holding that the trial court lacked the judicial power to award the temporary care, custody and control of the minor ■ child to the Bexar County Welfare Department.
This question was recently considered in Page v. Sherrill, 415 S.W.2d 642 (Tex.1967), and after a full review of the authorities, the Supreme Court expressly held that since the district courts are vested with general supervisory control of minors, it has the implied power where immediate action is required to temporarily take a child from the possession of its legal custodian, with or without notice, pending a full hearing.1
The child was brought before the court by the petition for adoption. The evidence, including the investigation of the former environment and antecedents of the child as required by Article 46a., Section 2, Vernon’s Annotated Civil Statutes, convinced the trial judge that immediate action was required regarding the temporary custody of the child. In Leithold v. Plass, 413 S.W.2d 698, 701 (Tex.1967), the Supreme Court recognized that “[tjechnical rules of practice and pleadings are of little importance in determining issues concerning the custody of children.”
Obviously, the order before us did more than simply “dismiss the petition for adoption.” In fact it is styled “Final Judgment Dismissing Application for Adoption and Declaring Natural Mother Unfit and Order Granting Temporary Custody of a Minor.” Furthermore, it is seen that the order expressly directed that Bexar County Child Welfare have temporary care, custody and control of said child “. . . until further orders of this court.” Such order, as in Page, . . contemplates only a temporary interruption of custody to be *878followed by proper notice, appropriate pleadings, and a full hearing . . . .”
I would sever and remand the issue of care and custody of the minor child to district court for such full hearing. See Hendricks v. Curry, 401 S.W.2d 796 (Tex.1966).

. Page v. Sherrill, supra, 415 S.W.2d at page 645: “Since the district courts are vested with general supervisory control of minors, they are charged with the profound responsibility of protecting their health and safety. Effective discharge of this responsibility under situations of emergency will sometime demand immediate action by the courts. Such action may, by necessity, consist of a temporary taking of a child from the possession of its legal custodian, with or without notice, pending a full hearing. It follows that the district court’s power to enter such temporary orders is implied since it is necessarily incidental to the power of general control over minors granted to the district courts by section S of Article V of the Texas Constitution.”