French v. French

373 S.W.2d 635, 1963 Mo. App. LEXIS 411
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedDecember 17, 1963
DocketNo. 31226
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 373 S.W.2d 635 (French v. French) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
French v. French, 373 S.W.2d 635, 1963 Mo. App. LEXIS 411 (Mo. Ct. App. 1963).

Opinion

ANDERSON, Judge.

This is an action filed in the Juvenile Division of the Circuit Court of the City of St. Louis on October 18, 1961, by Barbara French, through her next friend, Roy Cleghorn, the object of which was to secure an order from said court transferring the custody of her three year old! male child, born out of wedlock, to Children’s Services of St. Louis, and an order permitting her to waive the necessity of her consent to a future adoption of said) child. On the same day there was filed a waiver of consent to the future adoption of said child which was signed by Barbara French and Roy Cleghorn, her next friend. Also on said day, Children’s Services filed! a pleading in said cause, in which it joined in the prayer of the petition filed by Barbara 'French, and consented to accept custody of said child.

On October 20, 1961, the cause came on for hearing at which time Mrs. Daisy French, the grandmother of the child, who had his actual custody, appeared in court with her attorney, Louis Gilden. The latter requested a continuance of the case so that he might investigate the matter. The court granted this request and continued the cause to October 26, 1961. Cleghorn was not in court at the time, and after being informed that Cleghorn was ill, the court entered an order appointing Mr. William R. O’Toole, a member of the bar, as guardian ad litem for Barbara French.

On October 26, 1961, Louis Gilden filed the following memorandum in the cause, “Louis Gilden enters his appearance as attorney for Daisy French, the grand[637]*637mother,” to which the court added the following words, “and an informant to the court.” A record entry was made in said cause in conformity with the said memorandum. The cause was then passed to November 9, 1961.

On November 9, 1961, the cause again came on for hearing, and on said day Mr. O’Toole filed a report of his investigation of the matter and recommended that the transfer of custody, as prayed in Barbara French’s petition, be granted.

Mr. Gilden appeared at said time representing Mrs. Daisy French, the grandmother. Prior to the introduction of any evidence in the case, Mr. Gilden, representing the grandmother, asked leave to file a petition for transfer of custody to and adoption by his client, Daisy French, the grandmother. He referred to his client as, the informant, and this proposed pleading as a “third-party” petition. He also stated that he had not prepared such written pleading, but stated, “I would like to present this to the court orally and then, later on, a written third-party petition * * After considerable discussion the court announced he would delay ruling on the request for the reason he wanted to first dispose of the Barbara French petition.

The cause then proceeded to trial. Mr. O’Toole appeared for Barbara French, and Mr. Gilden appeared for Daisy French, the grandmother, who is designated in the transcript as “Informant.” In petitioner’s case, in chief, the following witnesses testified; Barbara French, Roy L. Cleghorn, Harriet Lee, a deputy Juvenile Officer, who had worked on the case, and Margaret Moffatt, a welfare worker, who had also worked on the case. Petitioner gave testimony which fully supported her petition, as did the other witnesses for petitioner. Mr. Gilden on behalf of his client interposed objection to testimony which he considered inadmissible, and cross-examined each witness. By his cross-examination, he sought to bring forth testimony to discredit petitioner’s moral fitness to have custody of the child, and which tended to show abandonment of the child by petitioner. He also sought to establish by cross-examination of petitioner that she did not have the mental capacity to give consent to the transfer of custody to Children’s Services, and had previously testified, in a statement taken in Mr. Gilden’s office, that her desire was that Jhe grandmother should have the child and that she desired to revoke her consent given the Children’s Agency. He also brought out that the child has lived at the grandmother’s house since it was born, and has been properly cared for by the grandmother. He also, by his questions on cross-examination, attempted to show that petitioner was living with one, Tony Mendoza, and that the latter by undue influence had coerced petitioner to bring the suit, and that she did not do so of her own free will.

Petitioner’s other witnesses were also-thoroughly cross-examined by Mr. Gilden in an attempt to break down petitioner’s case.

At the close of petitioner’s case, Mr. Gilden presented to the court for filing, a petition for adoption by Daisy Lee French. When presented the court made the following ruling:

“The Court: I don’t know whether it can be filed in this case or not * * * you can file it. I think the clerk better make a separate case for it, and then we can always order it consolidated.”

The petition for adoption was then filed, and was made Cause No. 72,244 in said court. Said petition alleged that Barbara French had for a period of one year immediately prior to the filing of the petition, willfully abandoned the child and willfully neglected to provide him with proper care and maintenance.

Mr. Gilden, representing Daisy L. French (referred to in the transcript as “Inform[638]*638ant” or “Third-Party Petitioner”), then placed on the stand thirteen witnesses in an attempt to show that it would he to the best interest of the child to leave it in the custody of the grandmother. To defeat petitioner’s case, there was also evidence calculated to show abandonment and non-support as alleged in the petition for adoption. This evidence went in without objection that it was not a proper subject of inquiry in said proceeding.

The evidence took a very wide scope and matters relating to the home life of petitioner and Mrs. Daisy French were fully covered. One of these witnesses was Dr. Dermott Smith, Acting Director of the department of Neurology and Psychiatry at St. Louis University School of Medicine, who treated petitioner for •emotional disturbance, seeing her on five occasions, but stated she was not psychotic. The Court called Tony Mendoza, the person with whom it was claimed petitioner lived.

At the conclusion of the testimony the court sustained Barbara French’s petition, and in its order granted Barbara French permission to waive the necessity of consent to future adoption, and approved the waiver executed by her, dated October 16, 1961. The judgment was entered November 20, 1961.

Also at the conclusion of the case the transcript shows the following:

“Mr. Gilden: And what are you ruling on, my petition for consolidation and adoption ?
■“The Court: I am not going to rule upon the adoption petition at this time, I don’t think I can.
“Mr. Gilden: Well, are you going to consolidate the causes?
“The Court: No, I am not going to consolidate the causes.”

On November 27, 1961, Daisy French, as “Intervenor and Informant”, filed in cause No. 72,138 a combined motion for new trial, and motion to set aside the court’s order denying the consolidation of the case with cause No. 72,244, the adoption proceeding instituted by Mrs. Daisy French, or in the alternative to overrule petitioner’s petition.

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Related

In Re Adoption of K. L. G.
639 S.W.2d 619 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1982)
Drew v. Littler
637 S.W.2d 772 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1982)
In re M. D. H.
595 S.W.2d 448 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1980)
Matter of MDH
595 S.W.2d 448 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1980)
In Re Interest of G
389 S.W.2d 63 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1965)

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Bluebook (online)
373 S.W.2d 635, 1963 Mo. App. LEXIS 411, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/french-v-french-moctapp-1963.