Baker v. Lease

Henderson, C. J., delivered the opinion of the Court. This appeal is from a decree, in a paternity proceeding filed October 10, 1963, under Chapter 722 of the Acts of 1963, awarding custody of the child of a married woman born March 21, 1963, to its mother, the petitioner, but finding that the appellee, against whom the petition was filed, was not the father of the child. This case was tried before the court without a jury, and the Chancellor handed down an opinion covering this case and also the case of Corley v. Moore, 236 Md. 241, just decided, where he reached an opposite result. The basis of the Chancellor’s finding in the instant case, as stated in his opinion, was that “the new statute does not remove the requirement laid down in Hall [v. State, 176 Md. 488 ] that the proof as to non-access must be clear, convincing and satisfactory.” For the reasons stated in Corley v. Moore, supra, we disagree.

The test is the preponderance of the evidence, as ²⁴⁸ in other civil cases. The court further stated that in the instant case “the prosecutrix went out with her girl friend nearly every night during the period of conception, and her parents did not know where she went nor did they know the defendant until he was charged by their daughter. The defendant was seen several times in Cumberland by the parents of the prosecutrix and lived with his parents about fifteen miles from Cumberland. It is the opinion of the court that the prosecutrix has failed to establish by a clear preponderance of the evidence that the husband did not have access during the period of conception * * Again we disagree.

The new statute repealed the old law under which bastardy was made a criminal offense so that it was incorrect to refer to the petitioner as the “prosecutrix”. The new proceeding is in equity, predicated upon the traditional concern of chancery with the custody, guardianship and support of minor children. Moreover, the Chancellor’s statement does not accurately summarize the evidence in the record. The father and mother of the petitioner both testified that the appellant and her husband separated in January, 1962.

They had been married on February 11, 1961, when she was sixteen years of age. The father testified that he brought his daughter home to Cresaptown from Finzel, Garrett County, because her mother-in-law had “set her out on the road”, after a quarrel occasioned by the husband coming home drunk. They testified that the daughter lived with them continuously until September, 1962, when she went to live with a girl friend. She had a child by her husband that was about one year old at the time of the separation.

The father, Mr. Sheetz, testified that the husband contributed nothing to the wife’s support. He