Casey v. Casey

Collins, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. This is an appeal by Charlotte G. Casey from a decree providing for the custody of her minor child, Douglas R. Casey. On February 2, 1955, by a decree, signed by Judge Stedman Prescott, 'Bernard Eugene Casey was divorced a vinculo matrimonii from Charlotte G. Casey. The custody and guardianship' of the minor children of the parties, Douglas R. Casey, born May 5, 1946, and Margaret Rose Casey, born January 14, 1949, were granted to Charlotte G. Casey with the right of Bernard Eugene Casey to visit said children and to have them visit him in accordance with the supplemental ⁴⁶⁷ agreement between the parties.

The chancellor further ratified a supplemental agreement between the parties fixing the amount that Bernard Eugene Casey was to pay to his wife as alimony and for the support of the children. On October 24, 1955, Charlotte G. Casey, the appellant here, filed in the divorce case a motion asking that Bernard Eugene Casey, the appellee here, show cause, if any he had, why he should not be adjudicated in contempt of court for his failure to comply with the provisions of the divorce decree by which he was required to pay to the appellant the sum of $583.33 each month for her support, and the sum of $166.66 each month for the support of the children, the total being $749.99 each month. The motion alleged that for the months of July, August and September, 1955, the appellee had paid to the appellant the sum of $300.00 a month or a total of $900.00, leaving arrearages to date in the amount of $1,349.97. To the show cause order issued on that motion, the appellee answered tendering all amounts due under the divorce decree and stated that he was ready and willing to abide by all other and further orders of the court; that he did not intend to be put in contempt of court and submitted the amounts due under the decree subject to the further order of the court.

In his answer he further stated that for a long period of time prior to the filing of the bill of complaint under an agreement with the appellant, the infant children had been living with Mrs. Casey in Chicago, Illinois. He further alleged that the appellant over a long period of time conducted a campaign of vilification against him in the presence of the infant children. Notwithstanding the fact that the appellant knew the appellee was anxious to have Douglas visit him at his home in Montgomery County, Maryland, during the months of July and August, she used her influence to estrange the children from him, when Douglas was to visit him. As a result of the vilification by the appellant, Douglas became hysterical and refused to visit him and stated that the appellee was not his father.

He further alleged that the appellant was not a fit person to have the complete custody of the children and asked that the custody of the infants be ⁴⁶⁸ awarded to him and that the former decree of the court be modified accordingly. The appellant then filed an answer to the appellee’s answer in which she denied the material allegations therein and asked for counsel fees and expenses for further costs. After further proceedings and after hearing in open court the chancellor, Judge Kathryn J. Eawlor, decreed on December 20, 1955, that, as Mr. Casey had tendered all sums due, the aforesaid petition of the appellant filed on October 24, 1955, be dismissed. She further decreed that it was to the best interest of the infant, Douglas, that he be placed in the custody of his father, the appellee.

She further decreed that the appellee should have the guardianship and custody of Douglas provided the appellant have the privilege of having said son visit her and of visiting said son at any and all reasonable times except that during the period of sixty days following the entry of the decree the appellant should not visit said son without prior order of the court first had and obtained. She further ordered that the appellant should have the guardianship and custody of the infant child, Margaret Rose, provided the appellee have the privilege of having the daughter visit him and of visiting with the daughter at any and all reasonable times. She further ordered that as long as the appellee had the guardianship and custody of Douglas, he should pay to the appellant the sum of $100.00 per month for the support and maintenance of Margaret Rose and that the appellee should continue to make the payments of alimony as set forth in the original decree passed on February 2, 1955, until further order of the court. From that decree the appellant, Charlotte G. Casey, on January 17, 1956, appealed here.

She claims that the custody of Douglas should not have been awarded to the appellee, but to her. In the testimony before the chancellor on December 2, 1955, the appellee testified that he attempted to visit the children once a month in Chicago and on these visits the appellant would accuse him of not supplying sufficient clothes for the children and would tell them in his presence that he was not their father and that he hated them. She also ⁴⁶⁹ told the children that they should not visit their father on his farm on account of the rattlesnakes and ticks. When he requested that Douglas visit him on the farm, Douglas replied that he did not want to go to the farm, that he was afraid of rattlesnakes and ticks, and did not want to be locked in the barn.

Douglas further said that Mr. Casey’s children by a former marriage would torture him. The children by appellee’s former marriage were one daughter thirty years old, another daughter twenty-two, another twenty, and a son aged sixteen. None of them lived on his farm. Douglas had not been on the farm for five or six years.

When he called Douglas on the telephone and asked that he visit him, the boy replied that he did not want to go to the farm and that Mr. Casey was not his father. In a subsequent telephone conversation he told his father that he would not go with him, that he would run away, and jump out of any vehicle. Appellee further testified that before the hearing he saw his children in the hall and kissed Margaret Rose and attempted to repeat this with Douglas. The boy told him he did not want anything to do with him.

The boy had been taught to hate and despise him. He further testified that Mrs. Casey was unable to control or discipline Douglas. He also said that Douglas’ record in school was excellent, although he was neurotic. He further stated that during the hearing in the hall, outside the court room, his son called him “a lousy rat”, stepped on his feet several times, and grabbed some papers out of his pocket.

The appellant testified that Mr. Casey had never spent a Christmas with her and the children since the children were born. In June and July of 1955 Mr. Casey called Douglas several times on the telephone. She asked Mr. Casey when he was coming to pick up Douglas and he replied that he was not going to pick him up because Douglas had threatened him. She later called Mr. Casey’s home and the telephone was answered by his mother.

Douglas asked to speak to his father but he was not there. Douglas told his grandmother that he had changed his mind and wanted to go to the farm. Appellant said that when Douglas was three or four years ⁴⁷⁰ old his father took him to- the farm and Douglas told her that Mr. Casey’s son, Gene, and another boy, put him in the bull’s stall, locked him in, started to pound on the door, and told him the bull was after him. Douglas made this statement in the presence of Mr. Casey’s mother.

Mrs. Casey further testified that the health of the children was good and that she had no trouble in managing them. She denied that she vilified her husband and when he visited the children “everything was wonderful.” She further stated that she had encouraged Douglas to visit his father. Mr. Casey had not been to visit the children since April, 1955. He called the children on the telephone several times between April and the middle of July and they would ask him when he was coming to see them.

He would reply that he would be there in about two weeks but he never came. She said the reason Douglas was rude to his father in the hall during the hearing was because he blamed him for the divorce. She heard Douglas call his father a liar two or three times outside the court room. At that time Douglas acted in a very unusual manner.

Thereafter the child was examined by Dr. Hanna Colm, a child psychologist, whose report dated December 7, 1955, was mailed directly to the court. The report stated that she saw Douglas and gave him a Rorschach examination. “Mr. Casey could only report on the family situation in very short outlines. There was only an hour’s time for this consultation. A thorough study of the situation could not be made, and I feel that I am only in the position to offer some impressions of the situation and an evaluation of Douglas’ Rorschach study.

Douglas came into my room showing immediately great suspicion as to ‘what this was all about’. He was not going to be trapped into anything. He would fight for his rights and independence, — nobody is going to force him, he knows what he wants and needs! He explained immediately that he wants to stay with his mother: ‘because he stayed with her all his life.’ He explained that he loved both his parents but was more attached to his mother ‘because he stayed with her all his life’.” He dreaded a change of situation but wanted to stay for six weeks with his father in the ⁴⁷¹ summertime.

He could not work in any school other than the old school where he had always been. The Rorschach test suggested that he was a very sick child, “longing for peace and a home with both parents and especially for a ‘good mother’.” The test showed that he was