Brown v. Brown

230 P.2d 651, 104 Cal. App. 2d 88, 1951 Cal. App. LEXIS 1578
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 8, 1951
DocketCiv. 7832
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 230 P.2d 651 (Brown v. Brown) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Brown v. Brown, 230 P.2d 651, 104 Cal. App. 2d 88, 1951 Cal. App. LEXIS 1578 (Cal. Ct. App. 1951).

Opinion

ADAMS, P. J.

Plaintiff and respondent were formerly husband and wife, residing in Dunsmuir. On May 10, 1944, Mrs. Brown filed an action for divorce, and on May 29, 1944, an interlocutory decree was entered in her favor, which decree confirmed a settlement agreement between the parties which provided that Mrs. Brown should have custody of the daughter and son of the parties, aged 2 and 1 years, respectively, with certain provisions regarding visitation rights and payments by defendant for support of the children. On April 2, 1945, a stipulation signed by the parties to the action was filed, which agreed that the custody of the children should be awarded to the father, with rights of visitation by Mrs. Brown, and a provision that she should have the children visit with her during the summer vacations, during which time defend *90 ant should pay her $60 per month for their support. This stipulation at least impliedly requested the court to award the custody to Mr. Brown; and the court modified the interlocutory decree to conform to the stipulation.

On or about June 10, 1945, Mrs. Brown married Lee Cool, with whom she lived until October 30, 1945. That marriage was annulled December 3, 1945, it having been consummated before the final decree of divorce from Brown. In the meantime Mrs. Cool had gone to Oregon.

On July 16, 1945, on application of Mr. Brown, the final decree of divorce was entered, and the orders for care and custody contained in the amended interlocutory decree were repeated therein.

Mrs. Brown, on February 11, 1946, married Kenneth Smith, her fourth husband, and thereafter resided in Portland, Oregon. In June, 1948, she and her husband came to Dunsmuir and took the children from Mr. Brown’s home during his absence, and carried them to Portland, ostensibly for the summer vacation period, as provided in the amended interlocutory and final decrees. The record shows that they were taken while negotiations were still pending between her attorney and Mr. Brown’s counsel for her to give a bond to return them to California at the end of the vacation. In Oregon she filed an action seeking custody of the children. Mr. Brown was served with process in Dunsmuir, but did not appear. However, in August of that year, before a decision of the Oregon court had been rendered, Mr. and Mrs. Slimmer, the father and mother of Mrs. Brown, went to Portland. There Mr. Slimmer picked the two children up off the street and returned with them to Dunsmuir.

Thereafter, on September 8, 1948, the Oregon court entered a decree which purported to modify the final decree of the California court so as to award the custody of the children to the mother, stating that their best interests and welfare demanded that they stay within the State of Oregon, and providing that neither party should remove them therefrom; that the children should be returned to the jurisdiction of that court and that until they each reached the age of 21 years their father should pay the sum of $50 per month for their support; and that the father might apply to that court for rights of visitation. There was also a statement in the decree that' the mother was in all respects a fit and proper person to have the custody of the children.

On September 1, 1948, after the children had been returned *91 to Dunsmuir, Mr. Brown filed in the original divorce action a motion for an order modifying the final decree of divorce to provide that Mrs. Brown (then Smith), her husband, agents, etc., be restrained from removing the children from his custody or from the State of California, and that he (Brown) be awarded the sole custody of the children; and that Mrs. Brown be enjoined from proceeding in or maintaining any action for the custody of the children in any other state. Mrs. Brown appeared in that proceeding and filed a notice of motion to modify the final decree to award the custody of the children to her, and permit her to take them to and keep them in Oregon. On October 19th she filed notice of additional grounds for her motion, setting up the Oregon decree; and on November 10th she filed a notice of motion for an order vacating the order modifying the original interlocutory decree, and vacating the custodial provisions of the final one. Affidavits were filed by the parties in support of their respective motions.

On February 28, 1949, the court began hearings on the aforesaid motions. Testimony was adduced by both parties, and on March 9, 1949, a judgment was made and entered confirming the custody in Mr. Brown, with the right of Mrs. Brown to have the children with her during the school summer vacations, but prohibiting her from taking them out of California, and enjoining all persons from so doing. In the court’s order it was found that the best interests of the children would be served by awarding their custody to their father. It recited that when they were 2 and 3 years old Mrs. Brown, in order to live her own life undisturbed by the responsibilities of their care, had delivered them to their father, that the evidence showed that she was afflicted with epilepsy and might suffer further attacks, and that she was not, and had not been since February 15, 1945, a fit and proper person to have custody of the children, and that Mr. Brown was such a fit and proper person.

From that decree Mrs. Brown has taken this appeal. Appellant’s first contention is that the order of modification of the interlocutory decree, made on April 2, 1945, is void, and should have been set aside on her motion because she was given no notice of the time and place of making application therefor. This contention is without merit. In Tiffany & Co. v. Spreckels, 202 Cal. 778, 791 [262 P. 742], the court said: “Parents have a legal right to contract with each other as to the custody and control of their offspring (Sargent v. *92 Sargent, 106 Cal. 541 [39 P. 931]; Anderson v. Anderson, 56 Cal.App. 87 [204 P. 426]; Van der Vliet v. Van der Vliet, 200 Cal. 721 [254 P. 945]). This right, however, is subject to the control of the court in proceedings wherein the welfare of the child is involved (Black v. Black, 149 Cal. 224 [86 P. 505]). But as between the parents, themselves, a promise by one parent that the other may have the custody and control of their child is legal and is a sufficient consideration to support an agreement on the part of the parent in whose favor the promise is made. ’ ’ Also see Puckett v. Puckett, 21 Cal.2d 833; 839-840 [136 P.2d 1].

Appellant relies upon In re Saunders, 76 Cal.App.2d 635, 637 [173 P.2d 818], as holding that notice is required; but in that case there was no stipulation.

In the case before us the “stipulation” between Mr. and Mrs. Brown was not merely an agreement between the parties. It was entitled in the divorce proceeding, and it provided that the custody of the children “be awarded” to Mr. Brown “pending further action of the above-entitled court.” Thus it was obviously intended to be presented to the court for its action thereon, and Mrs. Brown was well aware of this.

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Bluebook (online)
230 P.2d 651, 104 Cal. App. 2d 88, 1951 Cal. App. LEXIS 1578, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brown-v-brown-calctapp-1951.