Nine-Day “Spring Break” Not Criminal Contempt by Tennessee Dad

Tennessee law case summary on contempt in post-divorce and family law from the Court of Appeals.

Michael Ray Adkisson v. Tonya Suzette Adkisson – Tennessee post-divorce contempt, visitation

The husband and wife were divorced in 2006.  In 2009, the wife filed a motion to modify the parenting plan.  She also asked that the husband be held in contempt for violating the parenting plan by failing to make medical reimbursement and for violating provisions regarding visitation over spring break.  The husband also asked that the parenting plan be modified, and that the wife be held in contempt for failing to return his personal property and reimburse medical expenses.  At the time of the 2009 hearing, the parties’ children were thirteen and eleven years old.

The children’s therapist expressed the opinion that the father emotionally abused the children by videotaping them, grilling them, and making them the “rope in a tug of war.”  She said that she had never seen such bad conduct on the part of a parent in her years of practice.  The trial court detailed the husband’s extensive videotaping, and found that it was harmful and detrimental to the children.

The trial court found the husband in contempt for failing to make medical reimbursement, and for not returning the children during spring break, as called for in the parenting plan.  The trial court reserved punishment, conditioned on the husband’s future compliance.  The trial court also found that the mother was not in contempt.  The trial court did not modify the parenting plan.  The husband appealed to the Tennessee Court of Appeals.

On appeal, the husband first argued that the parenting plan should have been modified.  The Court of Appeals disagreed and affirmed the trial court.  The Court noted that it “does not label the father as mentally ill,” but that the “zeal with which he tries to prove himself right and the lengths he goes to show everyone else is against him clouds his judgment.”   Under the facts, the Court of Appeals concluded that the trial court had not abused its discretion.

The husband next argued that the trial court had erred in holding him in contempt with respect to spring break.  Under the parenting plan, the children were to be with their mother in odd years, and with their father in even years.  In 2010, the husband took the children on a trip to New York, which started on the Thursday or Friday the week before spring break, and lasted nine days.  The first weekend was part of the wife’s normal parenting time.  The trial court had found that the husband had engaged in “deceit and deception” and deprived the wife of two days’ parenting time.

The Court of Appeals held that this conclusion was not supported by the evidence, and that there was no clear promise on the part of the husband to return the children after seven days.  Also, the Court of Appeals held that the term “spring break” was poorly defined, and that both weekends might reasonably be included.  In fact, both weekends were included in 2009 and 2011, when the wife had the children for nine days.  A vague and ambiguous order could not support a contempt finding.  Therefore, the Court of Appeals reversed the finding of contempt.

The husband also argued that the trial court erred in holding him in contempt for not making medical reimbursement.  However, the Court of Appeals held that the evidence of unpaid expenses was supported by the record.

Finally, the husband argued that the wife should have been held in contempt for failing to provide verification of medical expenses, or reimburse her share of expenses.  However, since the husband had requested a finding of criminal contempt, the Court held that the lower court’s acquittal could not be appealed because of the Constitution’s double jeopardy provisions.

No. E2012-00174-COA-R3-CV (Tenn.Ct. App. Mar. 11, 2013).

See original opinion for exact language.  Legal citations omitted.

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