Court Opinion

ID: 9765921
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 04:24:49.689983+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:30:16.736937
License: Public Domain

SPAETH, Judge
(concurring).
1 agree that Tammy should be with appellant but I arrive at that conclusion by reasoning different from the majority’s.
The majority speaks in presumptions. It says that “ [c] ompelling reasons must appear before the natural parent will be deprived of custody of her child,” at, 1244, and that “in the absence of a compelling reason to the contrary, . . . siblings should be raised together,” id. at 1244, I am wary of presumptions, and would resort to them only if necessary. See Commonwealth ex *232rel. Grillo v. Shuster, 226 Pa.Super. 229, 312 A.2d 58 (1973). Resort is not necessary here.
In August and September of 1974 appellant spoke to the Brenners about Tammy. She told them that she was working and was having trouble getting a babysitter for Tammy, and she asked if they would care for Tammy for the school year. The Brenners said they would. It was understood that appellant would see Tammy on weekends, and that the Brenners were to have Tammy only until the end of the school year. In January of 1975 appellant heard that the Brenners “were getting up a petition to have Tammy taken from me.” Thereupon she took Tammy back with her. Her former husband then visited her and said that “if I would send [Tammy] back then they would drop the case and do nothing about it.” On this assurance, appellant returned Tammy. On January 17 (within less than a week, according to appellant’s brief), the Brenners filed a petition for custody, and thereafter they cut appellant off the .telephone when she spoke to Tammy, and refused to let appellant have Tammy for the weekend.
It is evident that the Brenners disapprove of appellant: She has been on probation for forgery; she has had children by three men, two of whom have been sentenced to prison; she is on relief. So thinking, they have taken Tammy by trick, kept her by force, and apparently with some success, have tried to turn her against her mother. I hope we never sanction such conduct. Might does not make right, and no interpretation of “best interests” should ratify oppression, no matter the oppressor’s explanation. Cf. Commonwealth ex rel. Blank v. Rutledge, 234 Pa.Super. 339, 339 A.2d 71 (1975). Appellant loves Tammy. While she had her she took good care of her. She should have her back.