Ingles v. Hodges

DOOLIN, Justice.

Upon the death of the parent into whose custody children are placed by a decree of divorce, the children stand, with relation to the surviving parent and all the world, as if no decree of divorce had been entered. 1 In the face of this Oklahoma rule of law, may third parties with whom children are temporarily residing since the death of their mother, effectively resist habeas corpus proceedings instituted by the children’s father absent a showing of unfitness on his part? We hold they may not.

Gerald David Ingles (Father) and Cynthia Ann Ingles (Mother) were divorced in 1961.…