Court Opinion

ID: 9574717
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:07:31.008444+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:43:30.145179
License: Public Domain

PARKER, J.,
concurring in the result.
Irene Pearl Kimel will be nine years old on 2 January 1961. When she was four years old, her natural mother granted the exclusive care, custody and control of the child to her natural father, and he had such care, custody and control of the child until his death on 25 November 1959. On 7 December 1957 the natural father married respondent Ruth Kimel. During her natural father’s married life the child lived in his home, and was treated by Ruth Kimel as her own child.
On 9 June 1956 the natural mother married Arthur Henry Kuhlins.
It appears that the child inherited $40,000.00 from the estate of her deceased natural father, and that a guardian has been appointed for her in Forsyth County, North Carolina. The child wishes to live with respondent Ruth Kimel, with whom she has lived since 7 December 1957.
The natural mother, after her marriage, did not seek to obtain custody, nor partial custody, of the child until the child had inherited $40,000.00. Did the natural mother’s interest.in obtaining the custody of the child originate when she learned that the child had inherited $40,000.00? Is her primary interest obtaining the custody of the child or obtaining possession of the inheritance? If custody of the child is awarded to the natural mother, what can or will be done to require the use of the child’s inheritance for her exclusive benefit, and to secure its safety? The natural mother has no income of her own, and it does not appear that her husband owns any substantial property, though he has a monthly salary of $385.00. If her husband agrees to support the child, and then fails to live up to his agreement, how can it be enforced? In my opinion, all of these matters should be investigated and considered by the court in determining what will best promote the interest of the child, for that is the crucial question in this proceeding.
*515The case of Harris v. Harris, 115 N.C. 587, 20 S.E. 187, involved the custody of a nine and one-half-year-old child. The Court said: “What the preferences 'of the child were is not found as a fact, though this has weight always with a court in such cases according to the age and intelligence of the child.” See also Spears v. Snell, 74 N.C. 210 (the infant here was thirteen years old), and In re Gibbons, 247 N.C. 273, 101 S.E. 2d 16 (the infant here was ten years old) to the effect that the feelings and wishes of the child, according to his mental capacity to form them, who is the party mainly concerned, should be given serious consideration by the court, in the exercise of its discretion, as to the person to whose custody and control the child is to be subjected. In my opinion, the feelings and wishes of the child here, according to her mental capacity to form them, should also be given serious consideration by the trial judge in his determination of her custody.