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Washington Supreme Court· 3/7/1899

In re Neff

Citations

  • 20 Wash. 652
  • 56 P. 383
  • 1899 Wash. LEXIS 219

Syllabus

<p>PARENT AND CHILD-CUSTODY OF CHILDREN—EFFECT OF DIVORCE-MOTHER’S DISPOSITION BY WILL.</p> <p>A mother cannot by testamentary disposition deprive the father of his natural legal right to the custody and control of their children, even though she had been awarded their custody in divorce proceedings.</p> <p>A decree in divorce proceedings awarding the mother the custody of the children is temporary in its nature, and, on her death, the right of their father to their custody is renewed, and he cannot be deprived thereof unless so completely unfit that the welfare of the children imperatively demands another disposition of their custody.</p> <p>The fact that children might be better provided for by strangers, to whose custody she had committed them at her death, would not deprive her divorced husband of his natural rights as a parent.</p>

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

  • “The fact that the children might be better educated, and better clothed, and have a more pleasant home with someone else than the parent can have no weight with the court as against the natural rights of the parent.”

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).

Judges: Reavis

Read full opinion on CourtListener

Cited by

31 cases in this archive cite this case; the 20 most cited are listed.

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