it is against public policy to destroy the relationship of parent to child
How later courts described this case
- it is against public policy to destroy the relationship of parent to child
Written by the judges who cited it.
The opinion
Dissenting Opinion by
Wright, J.:
I cannot go along with the majority in ordering this mother to force her thirteen year old daughter to visit her father. The record discloses that the girl refuses to make the visits voluntarily because the father has inflicted serious physical injuries upon her, and she fears and dislikes him. While I fully agree that it is against public policy to destroy or limit the relationship of parent and child, and that a parent should not be denied the right of visitation, the instant order does not provide for visitation of the child by the father. On the contrary, it requires the mother to compel visitation of the father by the child. In the words of Judge (later President Judge) Keller in Commonwealth ex rel. v. Tweedy, 74 Pa. Superior Ct. 577 : “We know of no law which justifies the entry of such an order and certainly none under the circumstances of this case”.