In Re Wenman

THE COURT.

This is a proceeding in

habeas corpus

brought to recover the custody of a minor child alleged to have been abducted and at present unlawfully detained. The writ having issued, a return was made thereto by the person detaining the child, and the matter is before us for decision upon demurrer to the return.

In May, 1914, in the state of Connecticut, the parents of the child—a boy now seven years of age—were divorced, and his custody was by the decree awarded to the petitioner, the

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father, with the right to the mother to visit her son twice a week at his father’s home in the state of Connecticut, and to be given his custody during certain vacation periods each year. That decree was subsequently, in the month of June, 1915, modified by consent of the parties, and as modified provided that the mother should be permitted to visit the boy at his father’s said home twice a month, remaining all day, and that he should be permitted to be with his mother at the home of her parents on Easter Sunday and Christmas day of each year, to remain overnight, and to be returned to his father on the following day as soon as reasonably convenient.

In the closing days of December, 1916, the boy’s mother (who is the respondent in this proceeding) “abducted and kidnaped” him, says the petition, and caused him to be taken out of the state of New York, where he was at the time visiting her, and brought to the state of California. The child’s parents at the time of the entry of the decree were residents of Connecticut. The mother has since remarried and become a resident of the state of New York, and at the time of the alleged abduction the petitioner with the child was temporarily residing in that state.

Kidnaping is denounced as an offense against the law both in Connecticut and New York; and when committed in another state and the person kidnaped is brought into the state of California, is a continuing offense and punishable in this state. (Pen. Code, secs. 207, 208.)

The doctrine of comity between the states of the Union requires that a judgment granting a divorce and awarding the custody of a minor child rendered by a court of one state shall be conclusive in the jurisdiction of the other states, in the absence of a showing of changed conditions affecting the welfare of the child.