In the Matter of a Mail                               )  July 10, 1989
Dispute Between:                                      )
                                                      )
BARBARA BOGDAN                                        )
                                                      )
     and                                              )
                                                      )
DOUGLAS BOGDAN                                        )  P.S. Docket No. MD-60



 Grant, Quentin E., Chief Administrative Law Judge

 APPEARANCE FOR BARBARA BOGDAN:
 Barbara Bogdan, Pro Se,
 P.O. Box 5067,
 New Castle, PA 16105-0067 

 APPEARANCE FOR DOUGLAS BOGDAN:
 None

In this mail dispute docketed pursuant to Domestic Mail Manual (DMM) § 153.72, each disputant claims the right to direct delivery of mail addressed to their minor children, Sander and Hillary Bogdan. Although the letter transmitting the dispute from the Office of Field Legal Services identified attorneys who apparently represent the parties in a concurrent divorce proceeding, neither attorney has formally appeared in this mail dispute.

Barbara Bogdan has filed a submittal pursuant to § 965.5 of the Rules of Practice. Douglas Bogdan has not filed the required initial submittal on his own behalf and has not filed comments on the submittal of Barbara Bogdan.

1. The disputants are husband and wife and the parents of unmarried minor children, Sander and Hillary Bogdan. The family residence is at 231 Edgewood Avenue, New Castle, Pennsylvania.

2. A divorce action between the disputants is pending.

3. Under a temporary joint custody agreement, the disputants reside with the children at the 231 Edgewood Avenue address on a two-week alternating basis.

4. In November 1988 Douglas Bogdan rented P.O. Box 5162 at Neshannock Branch of the New Castle Post Office and filed change of address forms for the minor children to this post office box without Mrs. Bogdan's consent. When she found that mail addressed to the children was being delivered to Mr. Bogdan at his post office box instead of to the family residence, Mrs. Bogdan rented P.O. Box 5067 and filed a change of address form for the children to her box.

5. The conflicting change of address orders generated this mail dispute.

Domestic Mail Manual (DMM) § 153.22 (Mail Addressed to Minors) provides that a minor's guardian may control delivery of mail addressed to the minor and that if there is no guardian, and the minor is unmarried, then either parent may receive delivery of the minor's mail. This is the only section of the DMM which addresses control of delivery of mail addressed to minors. It cannot be applied here because the record does not reflect appointment of a guardian and the parents are in dispute about delivery. Presumably, custody of the children will be decided, or agreed on, in the pending divorce action and, with it, the right of one parent or the other to receive their mail. In the meantime, in order to avoid indefinite delay in resumption of delivery, it seems fair and reasonable that the mail be delivered to the family residence where each parent is present on a two-week alternating basis. Therefore, it is recommended that an order in the form attached be issued.