Dad Gets 133 Parenting Days Despite Unfounded Abuse Allegations

Tennessee child custody case summary in divorce.

Jason Richard Madden v. Jill Clara Madden

The mother and father in this Tennessee divorce case were married in 2006 and had one daughter who was born in 2007.  They separated in 2012, and the father filed for divorce based on irreconcilable differences.  After a trial, the court decided a number of issues, including custody.  The trial court examined the statutory factors and determined that most of them favored both parties equally.  However, it also found that an equal division of parenting time was not in the child’s best interest.  Since the mother had been the primary caretaker, this factor weighed in her favor, and she was named the primary residential parent, with 232 days per year of parenting time.  The father was awarded 133 days of parenting time.

The trial court held that major decisions concerning the child should be made jointly by both parents.  Both parties appealed to the Tennessee Court of Appeals, raising various issues.

The father’s argument was that the trial court had erred in naming the mother the primary residential parent.  In particular, he had pointed to allegations the mother had made that he had sexually abused the daughter.  These allegations were investigated and turned out to be unfounded.

The appeals court first noted that custody determinations by the trial court had a presumption of correctness, and would not be set aside unless the evidence preponderated against them.

The trial court had looked into the abuse allegations, and had agreed with the investigators that they were unfounded.  However, the court also concluded that the mother had made these allegations in good faith and believed them when made.  After reviewing all of the evidence, the appeals court agreed with the lower court that the evidence did not preponderate against the findings.

The mother, in her appeal, argued that she should have been granted sole decision making power.  Here, the appeals court noted that the father had admitted that the couple had many parenting issues, and it agreed with the mother that she should have decision-making authority.  Therefore, it vacated this portion of the lower court’s order and remanded the case to give the mother the authority.

After addressing a number of other issues, the Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court’s judgment as modified and remanded the case.

No. M2015-01301-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. July 28, 2016).

See original opinion for exact language.  Legal citations omitted.

To learn more, see Child Custody Laws in Tennessee.

See also Tennessee Parenting Plans and Child Support Worksheets: Building a Constructive Future for Your Family featuring actual examples of parenting plans and child support worksheets from real cases available on Amazon.com.