Jarrett v. Jarrett

The sole question in this case concerns the jurisdiction of a circuit court to modify the custody provisions of a divorce decree after the death of the spouse to whom custody of the child was awarded by the decree. A decree of the circuit court of Greene County entered on May 26, 1949, granted Nellrose Jarrett a divorce from her husband, Robert Nelson Jarrett, upon the ground of desertion, and awarded her the custody of their son, David Nelson Jarrett, then two and one-half years of age. From his birth the child lived with his maternal grandmother, Ada Boggess, and her husband, Ernest Boggess, except for a short time when he lived with his great-grandmother. Each of the child's parents remarried in 1950. The child's mother died in 1951 and his father filed a motion to amend the divorce decree to provide that custody be awarded to him until the further order of the court. The maternal grandmother and her husband filed an intervening petition seeking an order modifying the divorce decree so as to grant the custody of the child to them. The father answered the intervening petition, evidence was heard, and an amended decree was entered awarding custody to the maternal grandmother. Upon appeal, the Appellate Court for the Third District reversed the amended decree and remanded the cause, with directions to modify the original decree and grant the custody of the child to his father. (Jarrett v. Jarrett, 348 Ill. App. 1.) We have granted the intervenors' petition for leave to appeal.