Bloodgood v. Whigham

This is a child custody case.

Roy Bloodgood and Gayle Whigham were divorced on December 21, 1976 in the state of New York. They had one child, Cherish Bloodgood, who was three at the time of the decree. As part of the divorce decree, the New York court awarded joint custody of Cherish to the mother and father. New York retained jurisdiction over the parties and forbade the parties from removing Cherish from the jurisdiction.

The mother was to have Cherish on weekdays and the father was to have her on weekends. On the day after the decree, the mother obtained custody of Cherish. The evidence…