Schenck v. Knight

505 S.W.2d 192, 255 Ark. 1008, 1974 Ark. LEXIS 1631
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedFebruary 4, 1974
Docket73-185
StatusPublished

This text of 505 S.W.2d 192 (Schenck v. Knight) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Schenck v. Knight, 505 S.W.2d 192, 255 Ark. 1008, 1974 Ark. LEXIS 1631 (Ark. 1974).

Opinions

J. Fred Jones, Justice.

This is an appeal by Donna Marie Schenck, the minor mother of Patrick Daniel Schenck, and Donna’s mother, Mary Ann Brown, as next friend of Donna Marie and grandmother of the infant child, Patrick Daniel Schenck, from, a- decree of the Garland County Chancery Court denying their petition for habeas corpus in connection with the custody of the infant child, Patrick Daniel Schenck.

The rather sordid background is somewhat immaterial to the question before us on appeal and much of the evidence is indicative of strong feelings so easily generated in child custody cases of this kind. The appellants’ brief begins with the statement: “This is the case of the stolen child, Patrick Daniel Schenck, . . . who was spirited away to a foster home by the Welfare Department, under an illegal order of the Pulaski Juvenile Court.” From our examination of the entire record, we do not find this case as simple as the appellants’ above statement would indicate.

From the recorded background for this litigation, it appears that Mary Ann Brown is a resident of Faulkner County and is the adopted daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Julian Nabholz who are also residents of Faulkner County. Mrs. Brown is 34 years of age and was first married to Tyrone Presley and they were divorced after two years of marriage. She then married Lawrence Schenck in August, 1957, and four children were born of the union. Upon her divorce from Schenck in 1965, she married Joe Brown from whom she is now separated.

Donna Marie is the oldest of Mrs. Brown’s four children and even prior to her separation from Brown, she and her children were dependent upon her elderly mother and father and on state welfare assistance for the bare necessities of life. From Mrs. Brown’s own testimony and other evidence in the record, it appears that her youngest child is afflicted with cerebral palsy, and her son, one year younger than Donna Marie, is afflicted with epilepsy.

It appears from the record that by the middle of 1970 Donna Marie was physically developing into young womanhood at an exceptionally early age and was having considerable difficulty with her reading in school. According to Mrs. Brown, Donna Marie had become “boy crazy” and Mrs. Brown became apprehensive about Donna Marie’s future welfare in her then surroundings and she sought aid and assistance from the Child Welfare Division of the state Welfare Department, which resulted in her relinquishing legal custody of Donna Marie to the Welfare Department with the understanding that Donna Marie would be placed in a suitable orphanage where she would obtain spiritual guidance as well as assistance with her schoolwork. Transfer of custody was accomplished through the written consent of Mrs. Brown and very informal juvenile court proceedings in the Faulkner County Juvenile Court. Through the efforts of the Welfare Department as well as the efforts of Mrs. Brown’s mother and father, Donna Marie was placed in a parochial orphanage in Pulaski County where she continued her schooling in public school and was permitted to visit her relatives in Faulkner County occasionally on weekends.

While Donna Marie was still a ward of the state, she became pregnant and was transferred from the orphanage to the Florence Crittenton Home for unwed mothers, where she remained during the last several months of her gestation period. Donna Marie was transferred to St. Vincent Infirmary where her child, Patrick Daniel Schenck, was delivered by caesarean section on October 6, 1971, when Donna Marie was 14 years of age.

The greatest conflict of the evidence in this case has to do with agreements pertaining to the custody of the infant, Patrick Daniel Schenck, prior to and following its birth. Numerous caseworkers and Welfare Department personnel and personnel from the Florence Crittenton Home testified that Mrs. Brown, as well as Donna Marie, and Mrs. Brown’s mother and father, agreed, prior to the birth of the child, that it would be to the best interest of all concerned that the child be released for adoption. They testified that Mrs. Brown’s mother and father only requested that the adoptive parents should be of the Catholic faith. They testified that clear up until the time of the child’s birth, they were under the impression that everyone concerned, including Donna Marie and Mrs. Brown, was agreeable to releasing the child for adoption. This testimony was denied by Mrs. Brown and Donna Marie. They both testified to rather extreme pressure exerted by the personnel of the child Welfare Division of the Welfare Department directed toward the release of the child for adoption, even to threats of retaining permanent custody of Donna Marie and never permitting her to return home unless they did agree to release the child for adoption.

In any event, following the birth of the child at St. Vincent Infirmary in Little Rock, the Child Welfare personnel went to the hospital to present release papers for Donna Marie to sign. They testified that when they arrived at the hospital, Donna Marie and her nother, Mrs. Brown, had just seen the baby for the first time; that they were both upset and crying and the release papers were not submitted to them for signing. Both Donna Marie and Mrs. Brown opposed the release of the child for adoption and they both testified they had never agreed to release the child for adoption and never had any intention of doing so.

On October 20, 1971, a petition signed hy Jamie Newson was filed in the Pulaski County Juvenile Court alleging Patrick Daniel Schenck to be a dependent and neglected child for the reason:

“That he is without proper parental care and supervision and dependent upon the public for support.”

The form petition then prayed that the court declare said child to be dependent and neglected and to:

“[M]ake an order for the welfare of Patrick Daniel Schenck, placing him in the legal custody of the Director of Family and Children’s Services, State Department of Public Welfare.”

On the same date, October 20, 1971, an order designated “Order of Temporary Custody” was signed by the judge and a referee of the Pulaski County Juvenile Court and it recited as follows:

“This cause coming on for hearing and the Court finds that the said Patrick Daniel Schenck is a dependent and neglected child in that he. is without proper parental care and supervision and dependent upon the public for support.
WHEREFORE it is hereby ordered by this Court that the said Patrick Daniel Schenck, be placed in the temporary custody oí the Director of Family and Children’s Services, State Department of Public Welfare, and that said Family and Children’s Services, State Department of Public Welfare, be authorized to secure proper medical and surgical care for said child until hearing and further order of the Pulaski County Juvenile Court. Said child not to be removed from temporary custody of the Family and Children’s Services without permission of the Pulaski County Juvenile Court.”

Apparently, under authority of this order, the director of the Family and Children’s Services of the state Department of Public Welfare took custody of the infant child; removed it from St. Vincent Infirmary and placed it in a foster home in Garland County, Arkansas.

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Bluebook (online)
505 S.W.2d 192, 255 Ark. 1008, 1974 Ark. LEXIS 1631, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/schenck-v-knight-ark-1974.