McDowell v. Richardson

Supreme Court of South Carolina

McDowell v. Richardson

305 S.E.2d 577, 279 S.C. 268, 1983 S.C. LEXIS 315

CourtSupreme Court of South Carolina

DecidedJuly 25, 1983

Docket21963

StatusPublished

Cited by3 cases

This text of 305 S.E.2d 577 (McDowell v. Richardson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of South Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook

McDowell v. Richardson, 305 S.E.2d 577, 279 S.C. 268, 1983 S.C. LEXIS 315 (S.C. 1983).

Pincite

Opinion

Lewis, Chief Justice:

This controversy is between the natural father and the maternal grandmother over the custody of the father’s two minor children, now approximately 7 and 8 years of age. The natural mother died in 1980. The trial court granted custody to the grandmother, but made no finding as to the fitness of the father to have custody of his children. The father has appealed. We reverse and remand for further determination.

In view of the superior parental rights of a fit, surviving parent to the custody of his or her children (See 39 A.L.R. (2d) 258, 260), the failure of the lower court to find the father in this case to be unfit, and the long lapse of time since the hearing in the lower court on March 18,1980, we think that the issues in this matter should be again reviewed so that a determination can be made in the light of the current facts.

The judgment is accordingly reversed and the cause remanded to the lower court for hearing and determination of the issues de novo.

Littlejohn, Ness, Gregory and Harwell, JJ., concur.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI