5 N.Y.2d 222 | NY | 1959
Lead Opinion
The purpose of this habeas corpus proceeding is to determine the custody of Laura Neuberger, an infant who is now about five and a half years old. About four and a half years of her short life have been spent in the home of the appellants, Mr. and Mrs. Sanders. Appellants are not related to Laura, nor do they have legal custody. They have her on a temporary foster parent basis pursuant to an arrangement with the respondent Jewish Child Care Association of New York, hereinafter referred to as Child Care.
Child Care is a philanthropic organization chartered by the State of New York to care for children who are in need of
It was in this context that on about July 30,1964 the Sanders, husband and wife, accepted Laura into their home having applied to Child Care three or four months previously to serve as foster parents. Laura’s young mother was unable to care for her after her birth and the child was placed with the Department of Welfare of New York City which in turn commended her welfare and custody to Child Care. When Mr. and Mrs. Sanders first applied to Child Care to participate in its boarding program, that program was explained to them and they were expressly told at that time that Child Care was a boarding agency and not an adoption agency. When they took Laura they knew she had a mother who would visit her, although not for a while in the beginning. The precise chronology of the
The district supervisor of the foster home department of Child Care testified, in part, that Child Care has worked with the Sanders to help them continue to keep Laura while performing their proper function as boarding parents. However, it became evident that the child’s best interests necessitated her placement in another environment where she would not be torn between her loyalty to her mother and her boarding parents. According to the testimony of a representative of the Department of Welfare of New York City, that department was in agreement with Child Care that Laura’s best interests required that she be placed elsewhere. A psychiatrist, the only witness called by appellants, testified in substance that he had interviewed Laura and the Sanders the afternoon before the trial, that the Sanders took Laura to satisfy their own parental instincts, that Laura is well adjusted, that if she were taken from the Sanders now she might become maladjusted, that the Sanders are the only ones Laura knows as parents, that it would be better to allow Laura’s attachment to the Sanders to grow, and that Laura would make a better adjustment to the change to her own mother later on, whenever that should be, if she were left with the Sanders.
Upon this record, the Supreme Court Trial Justice, who had formerly been a Children’s Court Justice for 11 years, found that it would be in Laura’s best interests if she were taken from the Sanders before, as he phrased it, “further damage is done or a still more difficult situation for her is created This discretionary finding was expressly affirmed by the Appellate Division. There is no merit to the appellants’ claim that
In considering what is in Laura’s best interests it was not only proper, but necessary, for the Trial Justice to consider the facts in terms of their significance to Laura’s eventual return to her own mother. The record permits no other perspective to be taken, both in view of Laura’s mother’s steadfast refusal to give her up, and Child Care’s declared purpose to return Laura to her own mother when she is able to care for her. Viewing the record thus, it supports in a most compelling manner the Trial Justice’s determination which has been affirmed by the Appellate Division. It clearly establishes that the appellants have conducted themselves in a fashion inconsistent with their agreement and, indeed, diametrically opposed to their trust. Their own witness testified that Laura had come to look upon appellants as her parents, “ the only ones she has known as parents.” In short, the content and tone of the record disclose a situation in the Sanders home which has reached such a peak of emotion and possessiveness that it is entirely inconsistent with Laura’s future with her own mother, and her need to be prepared for that future. Certainly, the Trial Justice was entitled to find that it would be in Laura’s best interests to extricate her now from the emotional entanglement into which she has been plunged by the keen parental desire of the Sanders in which they involved themselves contrary to their own agreement and in violation of their trust. He was entitled to find that to allow Laura to stay longer would make the future transition to her own mother more painful for the child.
The nature of this case requires one further basic statement. What is essentially at stake here is the parental custodial right. Although Child Care has the present legal right to custody (Social Welfare Law, § 383, subd. 2) it stands, as against the Sanders, in a representative capacity as the protector of Laura’s mother’s inchoate custodial right and the parent-child relationship which is to become complete in the future. Any future physical legal custody in Laura’s mother would be but an empty right, if the emotional substance of that relationship were permitted to be replaced antecedently by the parent-like love and possessiveness of Mr. and Mrs. Sanders. This court has acknowledged that “ * * * the right of a parent, under natural law, to establish a home and bring up children is a fundamental one * * (People ex rel. Portnoy v. Strasser, 303 N. Y. 539, 542, supra.) In support of this tenet we have declared that “ Except where a nonparent has obtained
We are, of course, not unmindful that the result we reach may cause distress to the appellants. However, the more important considerations of the child’s best interests, the recognition and preservation of her mother’s primary love and custodial interest, and the future life of the mother and child together, are paramount. These interests, and the program of agencies such as Child Care which preserves them, may not be subverted by foster parents who breach their trust.
The order of the Appellate Division should be affirmed, without costs.
Dissenting Opinion
This appeal involves the custody of a minor child. In sustaining petitioner’s application for a writ of habeas corpus, a majority of this court is about to say that the best interest of the infant will be served by compelling the approved foster parents, with whom the petitioner had previously placed the child for custodial care, to surrender her back to the Agency, thére to be dealt with as they see fit. This tragic result comes about because of a mistaken notion that the courts are bound to accept an administrative policy of the Agency as controlling their determination rather than to exercise their own traditional power and authority in accordance with the evidence. While administrative practices have a useful place in the handling of ordinary matters of adminis
This controversy has not been precipitated by the classic cause arising from abuse and neglect but because these foster parents 11 have become too emotionally involved ”, a situation engendered by a feeling of mutual love and affection. In extricating the child from this “emotional entanglement ”, it seems clear that on this record one of the most fundamental aspects of the child care program, namely the placing of children in a home environment, is being defeated. It is undisputed that the infant Laura was born June 3, 1953. At that time her mother was about 17 years of age and lived with her widowed mother and an unmarried minor brother, a student. The child was thereafter given over to the Department of Welfare of the City of New York who, in turn, gave her to the Agency. When the child was about one year old the Agency placed her with these appellants for boarding care. As might be expected, the foster parents became attached to the child; as the years passed by this attachment grew and was reciprocated by the infant. She flourished under their care and is now almost six years of age . The well-qualified witness, Dr. Pechstein, has described her as a “healthy, normal, well-adjusted child”. There came a time when the foster parents proposed adoption, first to the case worker who disapproved, then to the grandmother, and finally to the mother herself, who temporized and declined to
When this uncontradicted testimony is analyzed in the light of surrounding circumstances, it seems convincingly clear that the child’s best welfare is to be served by continuing the placement with these appellants. In so ruling, we are not unmindful of the mother. Under the applicable statutory scheme of child care and placement, the natural parents have first consideration, but even this right must be tested in light of what is best for the child. Here there is no evidence justifying return of custody to the natural mother. She does not ask it and she is in no position to assume the care and education at this time or in a reasonably foreseeable future time. All that remains then is to apply the test of what is best for the welfare of the child and, when applied in this instance, it points convincingly to the desirability of leaving the child with the foster parents. The
The courts of New York have repeatedly taken their stand on the side of the child (Finlay v. Finlay, 240 N. Y. 429; People ex rel. Herzog v. Morgan, 287 N. Y. 317). Quite recently this court reiterated its stand that the welfare of the minor infant was paramount (Matter of Bock [Breitung], supra). The Supreme Court has the power and the duty to promote and protect the best interest of the State’s infant wards. The failure of the Supreme Court to exercise its inherent powers in this habeas corpus proceeding in accordance with the evidence was tantamount to an abuse of discretion.
The order should be reversed.
Dissenting Opinion
I concur with Judge Dye for reversal. We are not here concerned with the respective rights of the Sanders, the Child Care Agency, or the mother, for it is undisputed that the Sanders have no rights as against either of the latter. The mother may have her child, Laura, whenever she wishes, subject to the provisions of section 383 of the Social Welfare Law. Our only concern is Laura’s best interests in the meantime. The problem presented rightly troubled the learned Justice at Special Term, and the Appellate Division was sharply divided.
Laura was born on June 3, 1953. Her mothqr delivered her to the Department of Welfare of New York City, who thereupon turned her over to the Agency. On July 30, 1954 the Agency gave the child to the Sanders for boarding care, at which time she was not quite 14 months old. Seymour Sanders at the time of the hearing was 30 years old, his wife 28, and they are childless.
Laura’s mother visited her but once a year for the first two years. Small wonder then that the Sanders thought she had little interest in Laura, and, therefore, inquired about adopting her, despite the fact that they had been told by the Agency
The Agency took the position, at the hearing, that it could not function properly if a “ foster family was in position to question our judgment, even if our judgment, if you weigh it, might turn out to be wrong Perhaps they are right (Social Welfare Law, § 383), but certainly the courts have the power, as Judge Dye has pointed out, to determine what is in the best interests of the child, our paramount concern.
In 1954 Laura was boarded on a temporary basis. More than four years later, we do not have the slightest indication as to when, if ever, the mother will want her child. If Laura is to be bandied about meanwhile from family to family until she is transferred to her mother, each such change will be extremely difficult for the child, as testified to without contradiction by the psychiatrist at the hearing. Why multiply the shocks? And if the mother never chooses to take Laura, and that does not appear to be unlikely from the record before us, the child could not find a better home than she now enjoys.
I am of the opinion that the Agency, however well motivated, has committed grave error here, contrary to the best interests of the child; that the courts below were in no small measure erroneously influenced by the so-called rights of the Agency, rather than by the welfare of the child, and that there is no substantial evidence to support their determinations. Accordingly, I would reverse the orders below, and dismiss the petition.
Judges Desmond, Ftjld and Burke concur with Chief Judge Conway ; Judge Dye dissents in an opinion in which Judge Van Voorhis concurs and in which Judge Frobssel concurs in a separate opinion.
Order affirmed.