Noble v. Noble

Appellant contends that since appellee is not the child’s natural parent the Court of Appeals erred in denying the writ of habeas corpus without finding by a preponderance of the evidence that appellant is an unfit or unsuitable parent.

In Clark v. Bayer (1877), 32 Ohio St. 299, this court recognized that parents who are “suitable” persons have a paramount right to the custody of their minor children. One hundred years later, in In re Perales (1977), 52 Ohio St. 2d 89, 98, we found that “based on the concern displayed in the Clark opinion for balancing the interests of both parent and child,…