Court Opinion

ID: 9587166
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:18:40.395176+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:33:04.160077
License: Public Domain

*557Candler, Justice,
dissenting. In Wheeler v. Howard, 211 Ga. 596, it was held that parents who had freely and voluntarily consented in writing to the adoption of their minor child could, without showing any cause, withdraw such consent at any time before the final judgment of adoption. I agreed to the ruling there made and do not now recede from that position; but the issue in this habeas corpus proceeding should not be confused with the one involved in that adoption proceeding. There are six ways in which parental control of a minor child may be lost or forfeited (Code § 74-108), among which are abandonment and voluntary contract, releasing the right to a third person. In this case, if the trial judge was authorized to find from the evidence that the parents of the child here involved had lost or forfeited their right of parental custody by either one or both of the ways mentioned above, then his judgment awarding possession of the child to the respondents ought not to be reversed by this court, and this is especially true since no attack was made on the character and fitness of the respondents or their ability to properly care for and rear the child. I will not undertake to make any extensive statement of the evidence which the parties introduced; but briefly, and without dispute, it shows: The child is the illegitimate offspring of a married man and a single woman, both school teachers. After conception,- they came from their homes in Texas to Atlanta for the prospective mother’s delivery and to conceal the fact of her pregnancy. There they lived together at a stated place until the child was born. Before its birth, they appealed to a number of highly respected people of Atlanta, including a prominent minister, to assist them in their dilemma. They told those to whom they appealed that they wanted to get rid of the baby as soon as it was born and to that end desired their help. Through pure Christian kindness those parties, at the request and with the unqualified consent of the prospective parents, arranged with the respondents to take the baby at its birth and at their expense to rear it as their own. In a few days after the baby’s birth, the respondents, pursuant to their agreement, took custody of it, the parents returned to their homes in Texas and since August, 1953, the respondents have fully complied with the terms of the contract releasing the baby to them. In these circumstances, it seems very clear to me that the trial judge was certainly authorized, if not compelled, *558to find that these parents lost or forfeited their right to parental custody. Hence, I respectfully decline to concur in a holding that the trial judge abused his discretion in rendering the judgment complained of. See Code § 50-121; Harwell v. Gay, 186 Ga. 80 (196 S. E. 758); Morris v. Grant, 196 Ga. 692 (27 S. E. 2d 295); Moody v. Pike, 200 Ga. 243 (36 S. E. 2d 752); Byers v. Loftis, 208 Ga. 398 (67 S. E. 2d 118).