Court Opinion

ID: 9641775
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 17:40:09.306806+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:39.681474
License: Public Domain

FLAHERTY, Justice,
concurring.
I join, but write separately to disagree with the reference in the opinion authored by Mr. Justice Larsen to a “right” favoring uninterrupted parental custody. Reference to “rights” favoring parents over non-parents serves only to becloud the ultimate concern of the child’s well-being, and has been relegated to the past as a basis of inquiry. Albright v. Commonwealth, 491 Pa. 320, 328, 421 A.2d 157, 161 (1980). As stated in my concurring opinion in Ellerbe v. Hooks, 490 Pa. 363, 373-374, 416 A.2d 512, 517 (1980), the custody inquiry is best conducted without reference to “rights” or “presumptions”, while focusing only upon “the determination of what affiliation will best serve the child’s interests, including physical, emotional intellectual, moral, and spiritual well-being.”
HUTCHINSON, J., joins this concurring opinion.