Wicks v. Cox

This rather unusual child custody case arises on habeas cor pus proceedings in Dallas County. Throughout this opinion we use the trial court designation of the parties. Relator, Miss Edith Cox of Lynchburg, Virginia, supported by intervenor, A. H. Mason, the qualified and acting probation officer of the Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court of Lynchburg, sought to recover the child from the possession of respondents, its mother and stepfather, Mr. and Mrs. Loy Wicks of Dallas County on the ground that early in 1941 Mrs. Wicks and her then husband, John Lambert Stephens, (father of the child),…