Pfeifer v. Pfeifer

NOURSE, P. J.

This is an appeal by the father of the 6-year-old child, Kent Pfeifer from an order modifying the

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final divorce decree so as to give the care, custody and control of the minor to its mother.

From the extensive evidence in the case we note the following:

Eespondent, mother, was 34 years old at the time of the custody trial (August, 1953). She graduated with Phi Beta Kappa honors from the University of California in 1945, majoring in journalism, and married appellant in 1946. After the birth of Kent on July 17, 1947, she developed a postpartum psychosis. There was expert psychiatric evidence that with modern treatment all patients who develop this form of psychosis get well again and do not relapse unless they have another pregnancy. Eespondent was treated first in a sanitarium and thereafter in a state hospital from which she was released on leave of absence on December 13, 1947, and discharged recovered on March 17, 1948. It was stipulated at the trial that she had had no known relapse. Shortly after respondent’s return the parties separated and respondent went to live with her mother in Berkeley. In May, 1950, she obtained an interlocutory decree of divorce on her cross-complaint. The interlocutory decree provided that the parties would have the joint care, custody and control of the child and that the father would have the physical custody until further order of the court or further agreement between the parties. Until the interlocutory decree respondent continued to live with her mother, who worked for her living, in her mother’s small flat. Except for the first few weeks of respondent’s illness the child Kent was in the care of appellant’s mother (the paternal grandmother). All provisions of the interlocutory decree, including those concerning custody, were continued in force and effect in the final judgment entered May 31, 1951.

In June, 1952 respondent married her present husband. They have built a new home in a quiet suburban neighborhood where there are many younger families with children of elementary school age; elementary schools are close to the home. In the home a special room is made up for the boy. Eespondent’s husband testified that he was 42 years old, had no children from his former marriage and did not intend to have children in this marriage because of the danger for respondent involved in pregnancy.