Case Summary

Gladys Fuson, a married seventeen-year-old, was arrested in Port Townsend, the seat of Jefferson County, Washington, charged with delinquency after deserting her husband, and transported to the King County Juvenile Detention Home in Seattle. She petitioned for a writ of habeas corpus by her next friend, Lona McMasters, which was granted. Gladys, whose husband, Harold Fuson, was seeking a divorce, declared that Harold had orchestrated her detention as retribution for her leaving his household and in order to prevent her from defending herself in the divorce suit. The respondents countered, citing jurisdictional and procedural reasons why the writ of habeas corpus should not lie. After hearing the evidence, Gladys was remanded back into the custody of the superintendent of the King County Juvenile Detention Home.

Case Information

Petition type(s)

• Institutional
• Interpersonal

Petition subtype(s)

• Child custody
• Child custody

Sites of significance

• King County Juvenile Detention Home (Seattle, Washington)

Outcome

Writ denied

Fate of bound party

Remained in custody

Case Citation

RG21 US District Courts, Western District of Washington, Seattle, Records of the Northern Division, Case Files, 1890-1972, No. 3451

Source material(s)

Case File

Case document transcriptions

• hc.case.wa.0147.001
• hc.case.wa.0147.002
• hc.case.wa.0147.003
• hc.case.wa.0147.004
• hc.case.wa.0147.005
• hc.case.wa.0147.006
• hc.case.wa.0147.007
• hc.case.wa.0147.008
• hc.case.wa.0147.009
• hc.case.wa.0147.010
• hc.case.wa.0147.011
• hc.case.wa.0147.012
• hc.case.wa.0147.013
• hc.case.wa.0147.014
• hc.case.wa.0147.015

Length of case file

Between 41 and 50 pages

Repository(s)

• National Archives and Records Administration, Seattle Branch, Washington (Seattle, WA) (Seattle, Washington)

State

• Washington

Point(s) of law cited

right to sue as a poor person|delinquency law|"a writ of habeas corpus is not designed to discharge the same functions as a writ of prohibition"

Tag(s)

• Minor marriage
• Children

People

• Fuson, Gladys Fredrika (née Hauck or Hawk) (bound party)
• Fuson, Gladys Fredrika (née Hauck or Hawk) (petitioner)
• McMasters, Lona (petitioner)
• Dykeman, King (authority ordering detention)
• Dykeman, King (respondent)
• Dykeman, King (responding party)
• Mason, Blanche H. (respondent)
• Merrill, Lilburn (respondent)
• Merrill, Lilburn (holding party)
• Fuson, Harold W. (respondent)
• Cushman, Edward E. (judge)
• Wilson, P. H. (petitioner attorney)
• Lundin, Alfred H. (respondent attorney)
• Helsell, Frank P. (respondent attorney)

• Additional parties

  Crosby, Frank L. (clerk)

  Lakin, Edgar Morton (deputy clerk)

  Boyle, John M. (marshal)

  Williams, Edward (deputy marshal)

  Sheldon, M. E. (notary public)

  Dahnken, M. Ruth (police officer)

  Sigurdsson, J. A..

  Brackett, S. M. (attorney)

  Carmody, John D. (attorney)

  Ewing, Edwin C. (attorney)

  Barto, Joseph A. (attorney)

  Ellis, Everett C. (attorney)

  Summers, Lane (attorney)

  Palmer, Erven H. (attorney)

  Patterson, T. H. (attorney)

  Hanford, C. H. (judge)

  Tallman, Boyd J. (judge)

  Horner, T. R. (attorney)

  Sickels, W. K. (county clerk)

  Conner, Earl G. (deputy clerk)

  Bruces, O. S. (deputy)

  Hunt, Mrs. C. E. (guardian)