CUSTODY OF BOY

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 290, 7 December 1943, Page 4

CUSTODY OF BOY

DISPUTED CLAIMS

SEQUEL TO A DIVORCE

The custody of a boy aged 13 was. the subject of an action between Thomas Gordon Morrison, mastei mariner, Devonport (Mr. Dickson), and Mrs. Veronica Hatton Avery, his former wife (Mr. .Noith ~h eaid before Mr. Justice Fan a^„ k gon Justice Callan to-day. Mi. Dickson said the matter had been befoie th Appeal Court as a/T ilv.thHn" mother, the present defendant, being given interim custody, and thei 01 cl for custody was vacated. The fathei, plaintiff in this case, n custody of the b'oy on that it was in the boy s best mtei ests. The parties had been divoiced in 1939. on the ground of deseition by the husband, and both weie now remarried. Mr. Dickson said tha while the boy was fend of both parents, he preferred to live with his father. It was admitted tha the mother had cared well for luni, but she had been named m association in a divorce case last yeai wherd the husband, had been held to be guilty of infidelity. Question of Legal Proof Mr. Justice Callan said he had read the divorce evidence referred to. and pointed out that it raised the commonplace legal issue, wliicn always seemed extraordinary to pe.sons outside the law. that in cases whore a woman was named m association with an erring husband adultery might be proved against one and not against the other. The evidence proved adultery against the man in this case, Cyril Alfred Battershill, to the satisfaction of the Court, but it was not proved against the weman. . Mr. Dickson said he was calling evidence on the point, and after the applicant Morrison had testified on general lines about his ability to care for the boy, counsel called Mrs. Gladys Joan Battershill, who testified that she got a divorce last year from her husband on the ground cf his misconduct with Mrs. Avery. She gave details of surprising them in compromising circumstances at a house where Mrs. Avery lived. To Mr. North, the witness said she was a novelist, and, under her maiden name of Joan Hewett, had written the novel "A Divorce Has Been Arranged," published in 1935, but it had little in it about divorce. She denied positively that her divcrce in 1942 had been arranged. An inquiry agent corroborated the details of Mrs. Battershill's evidence. Moral Lapse Denied Mr. North, on Mrs. Avery's behalf, said his client flatly denied the alleged misconduct. No defence had been raised by her at the Battershill divorce, on legal advice, as the easiest .way of avoiding unpleasant publicity. Counsel called a man who was in the house at the time of the incident spoken of by Mrs. Battershill, and his evidence suggested there was no misconduct. The owner of the house testified that he had never seen familiarity between Battershill and Mrs. Avery. Mrs. Avery gave evidence as to her circumstances and ability to care for the boy, who had been in her custody constantly and was a favourite of her present husband. She denied that intimacy of any kind had occurred between her and Battershill. In his address, Mr. North submitted that Mrs. Avery, whatever the decision as to custody, must be cleared of the charge of adultery after the full facts had emerged under the cross-examination of witnesses and the further evidence given. Counsel stressed the care :and affection lavished on the boy by his mother as his constant custodian after the father's desertion. Mr. Dickson submitted that the dominating factor in such a case was the boy's welfare, and that at the age of 13 years a father's control was desirable. (Proceeding.)