Court Opinion

ID: 9702545
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 23:15:58.81221+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:21:38.631479
License: Public Domain

Dissenting Opinion by
Mr. Chief Justice Bell :
I dissent, and would grant the mother’s petition for adoption.
It is trite but true to say that this case, like most contested child-custody cases, vitally affects the life, the love and the happiness of young children, and incidentally, sometimes tears at a Judge’s heartstrings.
A Christmas card and an Easter card, plus sporadic payments by a father under a Court-imposed support Order, with no visits by the father for several years and no real manifestations of affection or love for his children, should not suffice to prove that he performed his parental duties and did not intend to abandon or *433to relinquish his claim to his children. To paraphrase a popular old song, “if this is love, the whole world’s crazy.”