Court Opinion

ID: 9654820
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 18:52:10.673426+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:13:13.857746
License: Public Domain

OSBORNE, Judge
(dissenting).
I must respectfully dissent from the majority opinion in this case as I strongly feel it does a great injustice to the litigant, Dr. Paul Mandelstam, and distorts the law of this jurisdiction relative to the right of a parent to have custody of an infant child.
The facts of the case are accurately stated in the majority opinion, therefore, I will make no restatement of the facts.
*789The chancellor made no finding that the father was unfit to have custody of the child. The evidence would not support such finding had it been made by the chancellor. The truth of the matter is that there is not one iota of evidence in this record that in any way proves Dr. Mandel-stam unfit to have custody of his infant daughter. Yet, the daughter is taken from him.
Action of this kind by a court frightens me for the simple reason that it is an exercise of arbitrary, unbridled power. It is men acting upon whim and caprice without the restraint normally imposed by law to the great injury and detriment of the innocent litigant. There is an increasing tendency upon the part of this court to follow its whims in child custody cases by parroting the trite old phrase, “the welfare of the child is controlling. The court will do that which is in the best interest of the child.” These are nothing more than subjective tests and what is one man’s best interest may be another man’s worst interest. The continued utilization in child custody cases of this meaningless subjective test in reality is nothing more than the court following its whim without the guide of law.
There is law to control the court in this situation. The fact of the matter is the court just does not wish to be controlled. The same situation prevails here as prevailed in Reed v. Reed, Ky., 457 S.W.2d 4, rendered December 12, 1969. KRS 405.020 gives to the parent the prima facie absolute right to the custody of his child as against the whole world and the parent cannot be denied this custody until there is a judicial determination upon proper evidence that he is unfit to exercise it. We have ignored this statute. In fact, the majority opinion nowhere mentions it. It has been held as late as 1959 that the statute was applicable in this identical situation. See Goff v. Goff, Ky., 323 S.W.2d 209, wherein we stated:
“Our consideration must be confined to the record that is presented to us, and upon it we can reach no conclusion other than that Kathryn is an unfit person to have custody of the children, and that the court erred in not transferring custody to Kermit. There is no evidence to show that Kermit is not a suitable person to have custody of the children, and since as a parent he has a prima facie statutory right to custody, under KRS 405.020, he does not have the burden of proving his suitability." (Emphasis ours).
We have consistently insisted that a child could not be taken unless there was a finding that the parent was unfit for custody. In Hatfield v. Derossett, Ky., 325 S.W.2d 84, we said:
“Inasmuch as the record before us is devoid of findings of the ultimate facts which are determinative of the only issue in the case, i. e., custody of the children, we are vacating the judgment and remanding the case to the circuit court ⅛ *
We have reviewed and reaffirmed all of the foregoing law as late as March of 1968. See Reynardus v. Garcia, Ky., 437 S.W.2d 740.
For the foregoing reasons, I respectfully dissent.