Mom Can’t Lose Custody Based Upon Previously Authorized Relocation

Tennessee child custody modification case summary.

Katherine Sanko v. Clinton Sanko

The parents of four in this Hamilton County, Tennessee, case were married in Pennsylvania in 2001 and were divorced in 2014.  Soon after the divorce, the mother requested permission to relocate to Pennsylvania with the children.  The case was ultimately heard by the Tennessee Court of Appeals.  Ultimately, the mother moved to Pennsylvania with the children, although a new parenting plan was never entered.  The father continued to enjoy 125 days per year of parenting time.

In 2021, the father made a petition to modify, and the lower court concluded that he had proven a material change of circumstances, based upon the move to Pennsylvania.  The father was given primary custody, with the mother having 69 days per year parenting time.  The mother then brought a second appeal to the Tennessee Court of Appeals.  She argued that there had been no material change of circumstances.  She relied upon the first opinion of the Court of Appeals, which held that relocation was proper.  She argued that the trial court ignored the opinion, and failed to enter a parenting plan authorizing the relocation.  Therefore, the move, as authorized by the Court of Appeals, was hardly a change of circumstances.

In his motion to modify, the father’s primary argument was that the move to Pennsylvania would result in a reduction of his parenting time.  But the Court of Appeals had previously acknowledged that this would naturally be the case.  Therefore, that reduction was hardly a change of circumstances.

The father also pointed to other alleged changes of circumstances, such as the children’s strong preference to reside in Tennessee.  But the lower court had failed to make sufficient findings as to these other grounds.

For these reasons, the Court of Appeals reversed the lower court’s ruling.  It did, however, remand the case to give the father another chance to show that these other grounds applied.

No. E2022-00742-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. Apr. 6, 2023).

See original opinion for exact language.  Legal citations omitted.

To learn more, see Modifying Custody & Parenting Plans and our video, How is child custody determined 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.