Newspaper Page Text
JULY 20. 1957.
THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
ELEVEN
APPEAL MA? EE MADE T9 HIGH C9UDT
AGAINST DECISION ALLOWING JEWISH
CODDLE TO ADOPT CATHOLIC GIRL, 6
(N.C.W.C. News Service)
BOSTON—The long, bitter le
gal battle for custody of Hildy
McCoy, . 6-year-old daughter of
a Catholic mother, may not have
ended with the decision of a
Florida court approving her adop
tion by a Jewish couple, Mr. and
Mrs, Melvin B. Ellis, formerly of
Brookline, Mass.
The question of whether'to ap
peal the verdict to a higher court
was being <studied here by coun
sel for Mrs. Marjorie McCoy
Doherty of Hingham. Mass., the
child’s mother.
Attorney John Sullivan, who
represented Mrs. Doherty in the
Florida court hearing, expressed
the belief that there are excellent
grounds to pursue an appeal to a
higher court.
cision:
“I am grateful to Massachu
setts justice for upholding my
rights to provide for my baby in
accordance with conscience. She
is now a growing girl. I wish
not to see her hurt further by
more of the publicity that was
threatened to her and to me six
years ago.
“Someday she will learn the
facts about her mother’s de
sire to protect her with a priva
cy that others were willing to de
stroy. Meanwhile, with prayers
I hope many will share, I en
trust her to the loving providence
of God. The rest is in the hands of
my attorneys.”
(N.C.W.C. News Service)
MIAMI, Fla., July 12—A peti
tion for legal adoption of Hildy
tody cases in recent years, on be
half of Mr. and Mrs. Melvin B.
Ellis, a Jewish couple, was ap
proved here by Judge'John W.
Prunty of Dade County Circuit
Court.
The child was born six years
ago in Boston to an unwed Cath
olic nurse. The Ellises have had
custody of the child since she
was 10 days old. The Jewish
couple fled Massachusetts with
the girl in 1955 after Massachu
setts courts ordered the child’s
return to her natural mother,
Mrs. Marjorie McCoy Doherty of
Hingham, Mass. The mother
maintained she did not know the
Ellises were Jewish when she
surrendered the child and added
she wanted the girl reared in a
Catholic foster home.
The Ellises were, arrested here
on kidnapping charges preferred
by Massachusetts in March. In a
subsequent extradition hearing in
May, Florida’s Gov. LeRoy Col
lins refused to turn the couple
over to Massachusetts authori
ties. The Ellises then filed the
petition for legal adoption of the
child.
In his decision Judge Prunty
said he did “not condone nor
minimize the seriousness” of the
Ellises’ actions in flouting the de
crees of Massachusetts courts. He
also stated that the Ellises an
nounced tq the court that in the
event the child “upon reaching
the years of discretion and judg
ment, should desire to embrace
a religion other than the religion
of the petitioners, they would of
fer no objection or resistance.”
Judge Prunty said: “It is the
general rule and the great weight
of authority which is closely fol
lowed in Florida that courts are
always open to consider the wel
fare and custody of minor child
ren, and in doing so the court
may amend, rescind, modify or
change in almost any respect its
former orders and decrees.”
The court said that rulings per
taining to custody matters fre
quently regarded as “imperma
nent,” and are not subject to
consideration as matters “res
adjudicata.” (Res adjudicata mat
ters are final decisions made upon
the merits of a case by a com
petent court which cannot be
litigated again by the same par
ties.)
“Therefore, the alteration of a
custody decree,” Judge Prunty
said, “has generally been held
not to do violence to the full
faith and credit requirements of
the Federal Constitution.”
The judge said that “every
sovereignty exercises the right
of determining the status or con
dition of persons found within
its jurisdiction” and that Florida
“has a responsibility for minor
persons within its borders, and
as to them its laws are control
ling.”
Judge Prunty said that his
(Continued on Page Twelve)
Meanwhile, Mrs. Doherty issu
ed the following statement re-
McCoy, central figure in one of
garding the Florida court de-' the most widely publicized cus
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