Wood v. Wood

Henderson, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. In this case a divorced husband appeals from an order granting custody of his twelve-year-old boy to the boy’s ¹¹⁴ mother. The parties were married in 1945, and the child, Thomas, was born in January, 1949. It appears that in March, 1949, the husband, a Second Lieutenant in the Air Force, was stationed in Missouri.

The wife had evidently returned to her parents’ home in Baltimore. A series of abusive letters written by him at that time and in 1950 indicate that the marriage was a failure and that he had lost any affection for her that he may have had. In 1952 he obtained a divorce a mensa, on the ground of desertion by her. In 1956, he was granted a divorce a vinculo on the same ground.

By mutual consent, he was awarded nominal custody, on condition that Thomas be enrolled in McDonogh School as a boarding student and that the mother have Thomas with her for one-half the holidays and summer vacations. In July, 1957, the mother married a Mr. Horton, a resident of Landover, Maryland. It appears that she had had a child by him in 1951, while Mr. Wood was overseas. In 1958, she sought to obtain custody of Thomas, who was still at Mc-Donogh, because of the fact that Mr. Wood, who was still in the service, had been ordered to duty in Denver, Colorado.

The court, however, ordered that the child be continued at McDonogh, where he was doing well scholastically, with equal visitation rights to the parents. In 1959, she again sought custody, because her then husband, Mr. Horton, had been transferred to New York. A motion for an indefinite continuance was filed by counsel for Mr. Wood on the ground that he had been hospitalized at Denver in the “closed psychiatric ward”. The court denied the continuance, awarded custody to the mother, and permitted her to take Thomas to New York.

In March, 1960, Mr. Wood received a medical discharge from the service.