Tennessee Dad Wins Maximum Participation Possible Time with Son

Tennessee law case summary on child custody in divorce law from the Court of Appeals.

Timothy Joshua Gooding v. Jessika Ann Gooding – Tennessee divorce custody maximum participation possible

The father and mother in this Tennessee divorce case were the parents of a son who was born in June 2013.  In August of the same year, the husband filed for divorce.  By the time of trial, the child was about one year old.  The father testified at trial, but the mother did not.  The father proposed a parenting plan calling for equal parenting time.  Ultimately, however, the father was granted parenting time only every other weekend and three hours every other Tuesday, in addition to holidays and vacations.

The father then appealed to the Tennessee Court of Appeals, arguing that the lower court had used the incorrect legal standard.

The Court of Appeals first noted that the laws are designed to give both parents the maximum possible participation in the life of the child, and that there are specific appropriate factors to be applied.  An appeals court cannot tweak the schedule set by a trial court, but it must determine whether the lower court applied the correct factors.

In this case, the lower court had not specified the factors it employed, nor did it adopt any specific factual findings.  For that reason, the Court of Appeals took it upon itself to review the evidence.

In this case, the father was 23 years old and was completing his teaching certificate.  He had a nice home with his parents, and the child had his own room when he stayed with the father.  He testified that he had been the child’s primary caretaker during his parenting time, including washing clothes, giving baths, playing, and reading.  If the son woke up at night, the father would be the one to get him back to sleep.

After reviewing all of the evidence, the appeals court found no evidence that would support a finding that either one of the parents was more suited than the other.  For that reason, there was no reason to limit the father’s parenting time to the degree of the lower court’s order.

For this reason, the Court of Appeals reversed the lower court’s ruling and remanded the case for a proper determination.

No. M2014-01595-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. Apr. 29, 2015).

See original opinion for exact language.  Legal citations omitted.

To learn more, see Tennessee Child Custody Law.  See also Miles Mason’s book available on Amazon.com Tennessee Parenting Plans and Child Support Worksheets: Building a Constructive Future for Your Family featuring examples of parenting plans and child support worksheets from real cases.