Cleveland Christian Orphanage v. Barcus

Citations

• 25 Ohio C.C. Dec. 151
• 16 Ohio C.C. (n.s.) 93
• 1909 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 347

Syllabus

<p>PARENT AND CHILD.</p> <p>Abandonment of Child Not Shown by Failure to Pay for its Support.</p> <p>A father placed his minor child in an orphanage association, agreeing to pay a stipulated sum weekly for its support. He also agreed that if he failed to pay the weekly charge for three consecutive months after the same became due he would relinquish all his rights, interest and control of his child and vest the same in the association, so that it should have all the rights to and authority over the child which he had by reason of being its father. The association cared for and supported the child for over a year, until there was due it quite a sum which the father neglected to pay. He then began proceedings in habeas corpus to recover possession of his child, and the association answered that it was entitled to the child under the terms of the agreement. Held: The agreement was unilateral, not binding the association to care for and support the child and so unenforceable by it, and further, the fact that the father was in debt for the care of his child did not show that he had abandoned it.</p> <p>[Syllabus by the court.]</p>