Bayard v. Willis

Hill, Justice.

This is a dispute over the custody of the parties’ fourteen-year-old minor child. The superior court denied the nonresident custodial parent’s habeas corpus petition brought to enforce a 1974 Florida divorce decree awarding child custody to the mother. We reverse.

The mother is a resident of Florida. When the parties were divorced she was awarded child custody. The father paid his 14-year-old son’s air fare to Georgia and would not release the boy to the mother. She brought habeas corpus.

As a matter of public policy to deter child snatching, a nonresident custodial parent should…