Court Opinion

ID: 9753821
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 19:31:16.126795+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:27:43.085074
License: Public Domain

Dissenting Opinion by
Me. Justice Cohen :
In Commonwealth ex rel. v. Daven, 298 Pa. 416, 148 Atl. 524 (1930), we held that whenever a court is called upon to award custody of a child the fact that another jurisdiction has made an award is of no import. In Daven, the mother surreptitiously moved her children from North Carolina in violation of an order of a North Carolina court and we held that the order of the North Carolina court is important here only insofar as it may have a bearing upon the mother’s fitness to be awarded custody of the children.
If here the Ohio court has exercised jurisdiction over the children by making an award of their custody to the father, our courts should have no feeling of frustration since we indulge in the same “ouster” of sister-state orders in custody matters. Since the record does not clearly indicate that the Ohio court has made an order awarding custody of the children to the father, I would vacate the contempt adjudication and penalty imposed by the court below and remand the case for the purpose of determining the existence of such order.
I dissent.