Marshall v. Reams

Citations

• 32 Fla. 499

Syllabus

<p>1. The mother has the superior legal right to the custody and control of her minor illegitimate’children, and can transfer such right ¿tad custody to another; but the rights of the mother or her transferee are not absolute and beyond control.</p> <p>3. In all contentions for the custody and control of minor children the benefit and welfare of' the child are the principal matters which guide and control the courts in awarding custody. The ties of nature and of association, the character of the applicant for the child, its age, heálth and sex, the moral or immoral surroundings of its life, the benefits of education and development, and pecuniary prospects, as well as other considerations, enter into the judicial determination.</p> <p>3. Where the child has reached the ago of discretion, it will of ten be allowed to make its own choice, but this is not a controlling right of the child. Welfare controls choice, and the court will not permit the choice of the infant to lead it into an improper custody. The rights of parents and guardians will also be respected, and such rights will not be disregarded by the courts in order to gratify the mere wishes of a child, when the parent or guardian is a proper person to be entrusted with its custody.</p> <p>4. There is no fixed age when the discretion of a child begins, but mental capacity is the test.</p> <p>¡5. While one standing in toco parentis may moderately chastise for correction a child under his control or authority, yet, where it is shown that an uncle to whom a child has been committed to raise by its parent, has inflicted immoderate and cruel punishment on it to such an extent as to alienate its feelings, and to cause it to desire a liberation from the uncle’s control, a court should not, on habeas .corpus, restore by coercive order the child to the uncle, where it is made to appear that the child has reached the age of intelligent discretion and has deliberately chosen to remain with another; against whom no object