Payne v. Jones

George Rose Smith, Justice.

This is a habeas corpus proceeding by which the appellant, Kale Payne, seeks to obtain custody of his son, Dean Thomas Payne, who was two years and two days old when Kale’s petition was filed on November 24, 1965. The original defendants were the Reverend and Mrs. E. Leroy Jones, appellees, to whom the child’s mother, Betty Jean Payne Ford, had attempted to give the child. Mrs. Ford intervened in the case; but she has not appealed from the decree, which found her to be unfit to have the child. The pivotal question is whether Kale has forfeited his right, as against…