Opinion
March 10, 1950.
Appeal from Circuit Court, Orange County; Frank A. Smith, Judge.
Gladstone Kohloss, Orlando, for appellant.
Andrews Patterson, Orlando, for appellee.
Affirmed.
ADAMS, C.J., and TERRELL, THOMAS and HOBSON, JJ., concur.
CHAPMAN and ROBERTS, JJ., dissent.
SEBRING, J., not participating.
The final decree of the lower court, as affirmed, awards custody of an eight-year old child to the father and denies visitation privileges to the mother, except as requested by the infant child. Such is tantamount to denying visitation by the mother. This court said in Randolph v. Randolph, 146 Fla. 491, 1 So.2d 480, 481: "If there was ever a reason among civilized people why the father should have right over the mother to the guardianship of a minor child, I am unable to define it. She toyed with her own life to bring it into existence and if not totally bereft of the attributes of motherhood, she is morally, spiritually, and biologically best suited to care for it during infancy and adolescence. She is more sensitive to influences that are derogatory to its health and character and has been known to pursue it to the gutter and retrieve it after the father had abandoned it. In deeds springing from innate nobleness, the mother is the peer of the father and when it comes to instinctive and intuitional powers, she is much his superior."
In the opinion of the writer, that part of the decree which denies all visitation privileges to the mother, except such as the infant, in her discretion, should elect, should be reversed. Nothing in the record establishes such conduct on the part of the mother as to result in a forfeiture of her natural right to have reasonable visitation privileges with her child, under such terms and conditions as the trial court may prescribe, nor does it show that the welfare of the child would be adversely affected by an occasional short visit with the mother.