Court Opinion

ID: 9695937
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 18:31:38.49256+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:17.507593
License: Public Domain

JACOBS, Judge,
dissenting:
Because in my opinion the lower court failed to give proper consideration to the tender years doctrine in reaching its decision in this case involving two boys, seven and three years old, and because the record does not sufficiently reveal the husband’s background and capabilities for childrearing, I would remand this case to determine if custody should not be granted to the mother.
*91Since the court below determined that either parent would be fit and proper to care for these children, it remains to consider in which home the interests of the children will be best advanced. In making this determination the best interest of the children is the polestar by which this Court and the court below is guided. A review of custody decisions in this Commonwealth evidences a continuing effort to serve a child’s best interests, not by granting a child the most material advantages or placing a child in what best conforms to a story book family, but by determining the parent who has in the past demonstrated, or who is most likely in the future to provide, the emotional support, the steady presence and the unfaltering love which secures a happy childhood, and granting custody to that parent. To find this primary parent the courts have regularly turned to certain principles of law for guidance. One of these is the tender years doctrine. Commonwealth ex rel. Lucas v. Kreischer, 450 Pa. 352, 299 A.2d 243 (1973); Commonwealth ex rel. Grillo v. Shuster, 226 Pa. Super. 229, 312 A.2d 58 (1973); Commonwealth ex rel. Logue v. Logue, 194 Pa.Super. 210, 166 A.2d 60 (1960). This doctrine represents the court’s recognition that in the absence of evidence to the contrary, in our culture the primary parent is usually the child’s mother. Rather than produce an arbitrary result, I believe that the application of this time honored rule is in the child’s best interest.
In the case at bar, the record gives little indication that the husband was, or is likely to become, the primary parent. It can be gathered from the testimony of the babysitter and the husband’s mother that during the parties’ marriage the mother had ultimate responsibility for the children. Although the mother was the one to leave the household and children at the breakdown of the marriage, when she was physically ill and emotionally distraught, she did so upon the advice of the husband’s attorney, signing agreements drawn up by that attorney *92and the husband when she was unrepresented by counsel. It is not surprising that she did not comprehend the far reaching effects of her conduct or her signature. In spite of this, she kept up her close relationship with her children, seeing them virtually every weekend and even certain evenings during the week.
The husband’s current arrangement for the children does not, to my mind, represent the stability with which the lower court credited it. Three months before the hearing the husband introduced a new person into their lives by remarrying. The latest Mrs. Cutler is twenty years old, only 13 years older than the older boy, and at the time of the hearing was obviously pregnant with her own first child. This Mrs. Cutler is now the primary caretaker of these children. Considering the husband’s attitude toward child raising in the past, the lower court might have given some consideration to the possibility that the boys would not see much of their natural father but would mostly be under the guidance of this young, unrelated wife whose chief interest might well become her own baby. Similar facts appearing in Commonwealth ex rel. Grillo v. Shuster, supra, have been identified by this Court as giving cause for concern.
Additionally, the record is silent on the husband’s financial ability to take on a dependent wife and another child and continue to provide for the two boys. Appellant mother did a great deal to carry her share of the family’s financial burdens during her marriage, and evidence was produced to show that she is still self supporting and can provide for the boys. Although relative wealth is generally irrelevant, strained economic conditions could breed resentment in a new wife with a new baby that could be directed against the children of the first marriage.
The court below gave decisive weight to the factor of stability and held that where all else is equal, the children should remain where they are, i. e., with the hus*93band. The tender years doctrine, which would support the opposite conclusion was not applied. If this Court is to determine whether the lower court acted properly in finding that considerations of stability outweigh these young children’s interest in being in the care of their natural mother during their tender years, it must have the unanswered questions regarding the husband’s capability and background considered and developed in the record.
I would remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
CERCONE, J., joins in this dissenting opinion.