Holtsclaw v. Mercer

PER curiam:.

When appellant was only sixteen years of age she gave birth to a female child. A few months later she signed an agreement relinquishing to appellees all of her “rights, claims and title to the said infant as its mother or otherwise.” From then on for three and a half years the child remained in the home and custody of appellees. On June 1, 1943, appellant, having in the meantime married, filed this petition for habeas corpus, claiming she had been forced to sign the agreement under duress and was entitled to have possession of her child.

The case was submitted to the District Court…