Stoker v. Gowans

147 P. 911, 45 Utah 556, 1915 Utah LEXIS 73
CourtUtah Supreme Court
DecidedApril 1, 1915
DocketNo. 2669
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 147 P. 911 (Stoker v. Gowans) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Utah Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Stoker v. Gowans, 147 P. 911, 45 Utah 556, 1915 Utah LEXIS 73 (Utah 1915).

Opinion

FRICK, J.

This is an appeal from a judgment of the District Court of Salt Lake County denying a writ of habeas corpus. The facts disclosed by the record filed in this court, briefly stated, are as follows:

On. the 25th day of March, 1912, one Guardello Brown, a probation officer, pursuant to our juvenile court act, filed a complaint under oath before Alexander McMaster, Judge of the Juvenile Court of the Third Judicial District, in and for Salt Lake County, in which one Fern Markham, a minor [558]*558child thirteen years of age, was duly charged with delinquency; the facts constituting the same being stated in general terms. Notice was duly issued as provided by the act, service of which was duly waived by Anna Markham, the mother of said child. On the 26th day of March, 1912, a hearing was had by said court upon said complaint as provided by the act. After hearing the evidence the juvenile court found that said Fern Markham was of the age of thirteen years; that she was a delinquent child within the purview of the juvenile act; and that said Anna Markham, the mother, was an unfit person to have custody and control of said child. The court thereupon entered the following order:

“It is ordered, adjudged, and decreed by the court that until the further order of this court said Fern Markham be adjudged a delinquent child. It is the order of the court that she be sentenced to the State Industrial School at Ogden, Utah. The sentence, however, is suspended during good conduct and’ that she discontinue the company she has been keeping. It is the further order of the court that she report to this office once a week.”

On the 22nd day of April, 1914, Guardello Brown, “chief probation officer, ’ ’ filed a complaint in writing, but not under oath, before the juvenile court, in which it was alleged that said Fern Markham had violated her promise and the terms and conditions upon which sentence was suspended, and that she continued “to be immoral and to associate with corrupt and immoral people,” and the officer prayed that the sentence aforesaid be no longer suspended, and that said Fern Markham be committed to the State Industrial School. Pursuant to said complaint the juvenile court, on the 22d day of April, 1914, made the following order:

“Now, therefore, on motion of Guardello Brown, and it appearing to me for the best good of said Fern, it is ordered that sentence in this case be no longer suspended, and that a commitment to the Industrial School he and hereby is issued. ’ ’

A commitment in due form was accordingly issued directed to the proper officer, who executed the same by taking said Fern Markham (into custody and delivering her to the de[559]*559fendant, the superintendent of the State Industrial School, in whose custody she remained until the habeas corpus proceedings were commenced, at which time she was produced before Hon. F. C. Loofbourow, one of the judges of the district court of Salt Lake County. We remark that on the hearing it was claimed that during the suspension of said sentence said Fern Markham, without the knowledge or consent of said juvenile judge, and without the knowledge or consent of her mother, had married one J. F. Stoker, who is the plaintiff in this proceeding. After a hearing before said district judge upon the return made by the said superintendent in which the foregoing facts, except the alleged marriage, were made to appear, said judge denied the writ, and made an order remanding the said Fern into the custody of said superintendent.

Plaintiff appeals, and has assigned a number of errors. It is insisted that the court erred in refusing to hold that by said alleged marriage the right of custody in said superintendent and said juvenile court was ipso facto terminated. The district court made no findings of fact; at least there are none in the record.

1 We have searched the record in vain to find any legal evidence of a marriage between said Fern Markham and the plaintiff. All that is contained in the record upon that subject is this: Anna Markham was called as a witness on behalf of plaintiff, and she testified:

“I am the mother of Fern Stoker. She is a married woman. She was married to J. F. Stoker on the 15th day of August, 1913. * * * She was married without my knowledge or consent. ’1

Fern Stoker was also called as a witness by the plaintiff, but she said nothing about the marriage; nor did plaintiff or any one else testify concerning the same. Now, the question is pertinent : How did the mother know that the plaintiff and Fern were married if the marriage, as she says, took place “without my knowledge or consent”? There is, therefore, not a word of competent evidence in this record showing a marriage. Moreover, under our statute (Comp. Laws 1907, section 1189) it is provided:

[560]*560“No marriage shall be solemnized without a license therefor issued by the county clerk of the county in which the female resides at the time.”

The record discloses that the female in this ease resided in Salt Lake County. It is claimed, however, that the marriage occurred in Davis County, an adjoining county of Salt Lake. Our statute also provides that the license issued as aforesaid must be returned to the county clerk within thirty days after the marriage ceremony takes place. It is somewhat strange, therefore, that when there must have been an abundance of competent evidence respecting the marriage, if it was solemnized, that none was produced, not even an eyewitness. Not even the parties in interest testified, although one of them was a witness at the hearing. If the district judge, therefore, had found that no marriage was proved (which he may have done), the finding would not only have been justified by the record, but, in our judgment, it would have been the only finding he could _ legally have made. The contention, therefore, made by counsel that Fem should be discharged from the custody of the superintendent of the Industrial School because she is a married woman is not borne out by the record.

2 But, assuming that she did marry, as contended, yet there is nothing in the law governing juvenile delinquents which suspends its operation merely because a delinquent enters into the marriage relation.

3 Under our juvenile statute, as amended and re-enacted by chapter 54, Laws Utah 1913, the juvenile court has jurisdiction over all delinquent children under the age of eighteen years, and its judgments and decrees are operative until “the child reaches the age of twenty-one years. ” It is also provided by that act that:

“All orders, judgments, and decrees so made and entered by the court shall be under its control; and may be modified, amended, or recalled at any time until the child reaches the age of twenty-one years.”

The law, in almost every sentence, indicates that it was the intention of the lawmaking power to place the custody and control of juvenile delinquents entirely under the jurisdic[561]*561tion of the juvenile courts of this state until such time as they may be legally discharged by those courts, or by this court on appeal, as provided by section 11 of said chapter 54. If, for any cause, therefore, said Fern should no longer have been held in custody as a.

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Bluebook (online)
147 P. 911, 45 Utah 556, 1915 Utah LEXIS 73, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/stoker-v-gowans-utah-1915.