Dad Gets Custody After Mom Limits Parenting Time
- At July 08, 2019
- By Miles Mason
- In Child Custody
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Tennessee child custody case summary.
The child in this Rutherford County, Tennessee, case was born to unwed parents who had a brief relationship. The mother learned she was pregnant after she began dating a new boyfriend, but a DNA test excluded that man as being the father. After the child was born, the mother sent a picture to the sister via social media, and a home DNA test subsequently confirmed his paternity.
The father immediately sought parenting time with the daughter, who was then five months old. While the father was allowed some visitation, there was no formal order in place. The mother threatened to call the police if the father didn’t provide his address, and the father then returned the child to the mother. The mother testified that the father threw the child while in the car seat.
The father then filed a petition to establish paternity. The court made a temporary order giving each parent approximately equal parenting time. A trial was then held. After hearing the evidence, the trial judge named the father the primary residential parent and gave him sole decision making authority. The mother was awarded 100 days of visitation per year. Dissatisfied with this outcome, the mother then appealed to the Tennessee Court of Appeals.
The mother first argued that the trial court should have allowed evidence of the father’s previous DUIs. The trial court held that anything prior to the child’s birth was not relevant. But the Court of Appeals ruled that the evidence was relevant, since the parent’s history with alcohol is a relevant topic. It went on to hold, however, that this error did not affect the outcome of the case.
The appeals court then turned to the substance of the parenting plan. It noted that the best interests of the child was the paramount factor to consider. In this case, the trial court had noted that the father was a hands-on parent as soon as he had knowledge of the child. It also found that the mother had withheld the child and impeded the relationship. After reviewing the evidence, the appeals court agreed with the lower court that the statutory factors favored the father. Accordingly, it affirmed the finding naming the father the primary residential parent.
The mother fared better, however, when it came to some of the other issues. The appeals court next addressed the allocation of decision making authority. Here, it held that the lower court had not made findings on many of the relevant factors. Therefore, it vacated this part of the ruling and sent the case back for full fact finding.
The court next turned to parenting time, and once again, the mother’s appeal was somewhat successful. The appeals court found the mother to have suffered a dramatic limitation in parenting time, and found that the record did not support it. The lower court had focused on the fact that the parties lived in different counties, but the appeals court pointed out that neither party was particularly burdened by making the exchange. For these reasons, the appeals court decided to send the case back to the lower court to adjust the parenting schedule.
After addressing child support and attorney’s fees, the Court of Appeals remanded the case to the lower court.
No. M2018-00541-COA-R3-JV (Tenn. Ct. App. May 23, 2019).
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 examples of parenting plans and child support worksheets from real cases available on Amazon.com.
