State Ex Rel. Elsman v. Second Judicial District Court

287 P. 957, 52 Nev. 379, 1930 Nev. LEXIS 25
CourtNevada Supreme Court
DecidedMay 14, 1930
Docket2903
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 287 P. 957 (State Ex Rel. Elsman v. Second Judicial District Court) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nevada Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State Ex Rel. Elsman v. Second Judicial District Court, 287 P. 957, 52 Nev. 379, 1930 Nev. LEXIS 25 (Neb. 1930).

Opinion

*387 OPINION

By the Couyt,

Sanders, J.:

This is an original proceeding in prohibition. The proceeding is the outgrowth of a very bitter contest between divorced parents over the custody of the only issue of their marriage, a child of tender years.

Upon the filing of the petition for the writ with the clerk of this court, the respondents, through their attorneys, requested that the writ be not issued until they were given an opportunity to be heard. The request was granted. Thereafter, the application or petition for the writ came on for hearing informally in open cpurt. Upon consideration of the arguments, an order was made directing an alternative writ to issue and that the respondents show cause before this court on the day fixed in the order why the writ should not be made absolute. On the day fixed for return, the respondents appeared and filed an answer to the petition and, in *388 addition thereto, filed a full and complete transcript of the proceedings had in the matter to be reviewed and determined. Thereupon the question of making the writ absolute was fully argued and submitted for decision upon the petition, answer, and return and upon extended briefs.

The facts, omitting details, are substantially as follows:

In 1926 Ralph Elsman filed a suit in the respondent court against Beatrice Elsman, his wife, for divorce. On January 4, 1927, Beatrice Elsman was granted a divorce from Ralph Elsman, the plaintiff, upon her answer and cross - complaint. By the terms of the decree the sole care, custody, and control of the minor child of the parties, Ralph Elsman, Jr., was awarded to the plaintiff, the father, subject to the right of the defendant and cross-complainant, the mother, to have the possession of the child in Washoe County, Nevada, and not elsewhere, at the times and places specified in detail in the decree of divorce, not material to be stated here.

By the terms of the decree, jurisdiction was expressly reserved to the court to modify that portion of the decree and order with respect to the custody and.possession of the child, Ralph Elsman, Jr., for cause.

Shortly after divorce, Ralph Elsman intermarried with Florence Diehl Elsman and they are now husband and wife.

On March 31, 1928, Ralph Elsman filed in the case entitled Ralph Elsman, Plaintiff, v. Beatrice Elsman, Defendant, a notice of motion and motion to change, modify, and amend that portion of the decree rendered and entered therein relative to the custody and possession of Ralph Elsman, Jr. On May 2, 1928, the respondent judge, Hon. George A. Bartlett, who presided in the divorce action, made and caused to be entered an order changing and modifying the decree so as to read substantially as follows: “That the sole care, custody and control of the minor child, of the parties, Ralph Elsman, Jr., is hereby awarded to the *389 plaintiff, and that he continue to have the same so long as the best interests of said minor child are subserved thereby. That during the time that said child is in the sole care, custody and control of the plaintiff and within the County of Washoe, State of Nevada, the defendant may visit the said child at the home of the plaintiff at Franktown, Washoe County, Nevada, and not elsewhere, unless otherwise mutually agreed by and between the plaintiff and the defendant, during one hour of each day of one calendar month in each and every year, said month to be designated by the defendant and thirty days’ notice thereof given to the plaintiff; and that the above entitled court may, if necessary, reasonable and proper on application, require the plaintiff to have the said minor child in Washoe County, Nevada, during said period of one calendar month in each and every year.”

Thereafter, on November 4, 1929, Ralph Elsman filed in said court and cause a notice of motion and motion for a further change of the decree so as to read as follows: “That the sole care, custody and control of the minor child of the parties, Ralph Elsman, Jr., is hereby awarded jointly to the plaintiff and to his wife, Florence Diehl Elsman, and to the survivor of them; subject to the further order of the Court.”

Thereafter, Beatrice Elsman entered her appearance and filed her reply in defense, and on February 4, 1930, filed in said court and cause a notice of motion and motion asking that the decree of divorce relative to the custody and possession of her child, Ralph Elsman, Jr., be changed so as to read as follows: “That the sole care, custody and control of the minor child of the parties, to-wit, Ralph Elsman, Jr., is hereby awarded to the defendant, the mother, Beatrice J. Elsman, and that she continue to have the same so long as the best interests of said minor child are subserved thereby.”

The two motions were consolidated and came on for hearing before Hon. George A. Bartlett, presiding judge, on February 6, 1930; the first movant, Ralph Elsman, being given the opening. The hearing of the motion of *390 Ralph Elsman occupied the time of the court continuously, except for certain intervals, from February 6 to February 28, 1930.

In the midst of the hearing of the plaintiff’s motion and when the evidence in support thereof in chief had practically been concluded, Beatrice Elsman, the opposing movant, on, to wit, February 24, 1930, filed in said court and cause a notice of motion and motion, supported by her own affidavit attached to, exhibited with, and made a part thereof, in which she prayed and sought an order changing the place of trial of said motions or that another judge be called in to hear and try the same, for the reasons and upon the grounds stated in her affidavit, which, omitting details, may be summarized as follows:

That Judge Bartlett, judge presiding, has been, and now is, upon terms of such close intimacy with and friendship for the plaintiff and his present wife that the affiant verily believes and states that she cannot have a fair and impartial trial of the pending issues; that, during the period of several years last preceding, Judge Bartlett had been a frequent visitor and guest at the home of the plaintiff in Franktown, Washoe County, Nevada; that a room was set apart in said Elsman home for the use of Judge Bartlett on the occasions of his frequent visits of such frequent occurrence that such room had come to be designated by the servants and members of the household as “Judge Bartlett’s Room”; that Judge Bartlett was and still is a welcome guest at said Elsman home, and during said period Judge Bartlett made frequent visits to the plaintiff’s home for horseback riding exercises; that, during the pendency of the hearing of the respective motions and within several years last past, the plaintiff has been a frequent visitor at the home of Judge Bartlett; that, owing to and as a result of the close association aforesaid, Judge Bartlett has unconsciously absorbed at least a portion of the ill feeling and resentment then and now entertained by said Ralph' Elsman and his present wife toward the defendant; and that *391

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
287 P. 957, 52 Nev. 379, 1930 Nev. LEXIS 25, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-elsman-v-second-judicial-district-court-nev-1930.