Court Opinion

ID: 9756212
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 21:15:26.770697+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:56:50.403855
License: Public Domain

Hammond, J.,
filed the following dissenting opinion:
Precedents and theories should never control the decision of a custody or adoption case since the answer to the question of what is for the best interests and welfare of the child necessarily depends on judgment applied to a set of facts and circumstances which, like the proverbial will, has no twin brother. In the present case, it seems to me that the Court has disregarded this salutary rule and has paid homage to homilies and made a fetish of formulas.
It is conceded that the would-be adopting parents are, in the words of the investigating probation officer, “good, stable, responsible persons”, and in the words of the chancellor, are “fine people” who “have a good home, and have done an excellent job in raising the child from a sickly child to good health.” The probation department found that the boy had required a great deal more care and attention than is usually necessary for a normal child “and that he gives every indication of having received excellent care and much love from the petitioners.” The probation department pointed out that the second floor apartment of the petitioners’ home is occupied by a daughter, Thelma Peters, and her husband and son, and said: “A very close relationship exists between the Petitioners and the Peters family, and the Peters are as devoted to the child sought in adoption as are the Petitioners.” The financial position of the petitioners is sound. They have a substantial equity in their home, own their car outright, and *108the would-be father is not only employed at a good wage but receives, and will continue to receive, a substantial pension as a retired U. S. Marine.
It is obvious that the ages of a couple who wish to adopt a child are an important consideration. The authorities on the subject themselves emphasize the need of flexibility. In the proceedings of the Maryland Adoption Conference, referred to in the opinion of the majority, it is said: “The group agreed that flexibility about age was important”, and again said that “* * * age policies need careful interpretation to the community. If we * * * keep in mind the principle of flexibility, it seems possible to handle the question of age with minimum damage to applicant.” In the present case, the probation department recommended that the petitioners be allowed to adopt the child even though their ages were such that normally this would not have been the case. The couple were regarded as young for their ages and as having a youthful outlook. They have been good for the child and the child apparently has been good for them. The Department of Welfare permitted them to have the child for a much longer period than is customary for foster parents, and, so, brought about almost inevitably the growth of a mutual love and affection between the child and the couple he regarded as his father and mother. Added to this was the increased love which they felt for the child because of having nursed him through a series of illnesses from a weak, sickly infant to a healthy, normal child. The prospective parents are sincerely afraid that the child will be seriously hurt if he is taken from them, and the probation department apparently shares that view. There is no reason to believe, apart from the uncertainties which attend human life generally and which would be substantially as great in the case of younger parents, that the petitioners will not be able adequately to care for the boy for the foreseeable future. In addition to this, the Peters family, who are young enough even by the ideal standards of the social workers of the Department of Welfare, are on hand and, in all probability, would take over if for any reason the petitioners became unable to continue to care for the boy. The child is in a happy, *109wholesome, loving home and to change that environment for theoretical reasons seems to me to be a completely unnecessary and unjustified experiment, which could very readily cause serious harm to the child.
It would be one thing if the petitioners were seeking to adopt a child that they had never had or cared for. Then the age question properly would be decisive. It is another thing when they have been permitted to care for the child over a long period and have demonstrated that they have both the inclination and the capacity to do so excellently. If there was ever a case where flexibility as to age should be applied, it is this case.
The question of religion would give me very little pause under the circumstances. The requirement in all of the Counties of the State except three that the adoption be by a person of the same religious belief as the minor or his parents “whenever practicable”, can hardly be deemed a strong State policy by reason of the exemption of those three Counties. (The rule to be applied might be difficult to find if the adopting parents were outside of the three Counties and the natural parents were within, or vice versa.) In any event, the requirement is not absolute and it is doubtful whether constitutionally it could be made so. Whether it is practicable, in any given case, to require that the adopting parents have the same religious faith as the parents of the child is a matter that must be measured, in the final analysis, by the best interests and welfare of the child. Here the boy was too young to have any religion of his own choice, and his mother seems not to have benefited from hers or to have taken it too seriously since the child who is sought to be adopted was her fifth illegitimate child.
I would reverse the decree and permit the adoption.