Tennessee Dad Allowed to Relocate to Ohio for Job Over Mom’s Objection
Tennessee law case summary on parent relocation law in Tennessee divorce and family law from the Tennessee Court of Appeals.
Price v. Bright – Tennessee Parent Relocation Granted
Richard Theodore Bright and Sheryl Lynn Price were not married when their daughter was born in 1996. In 1999, the Juvenile Court ruled that Mr. Bright was the child’s father. The mother was awarded temporary custody. In 2000, the father made an emergency petition seeking temporary custody. After various hearings, the court granted the father and mother joint legal custody, with the father being the primary residential parent.
In 2003, the father filed a petition for permission to move to Ohio. The father was from Ohio and had several close relatives, including his mother, grandmother, and cousins, living in or near Marengo, Ohio. He alleged that the mother had refused to assist when the daughter was ill, and was too busy at work and school to assist. He also alleged that the mother’s boyfriend kept the child by himself when the mother was at work or school.
The father also testified that he had three job offers in Ohio, any one of which would substantially increase his income and provide better health insurance. His current job in Tennessee paid $15,000 to $20,000, but the job in Ohio paid $19.50 per hour and included a 401K, paid vacations, health insurance, and a pension plan. He also testified that he was approved for purchase of a house in Ohio. He also testified that his daughter was looking forward to moving to Ohio to be closer to her grandparents and other relatives.
The mother testified that the daughter had a good relationship with the mother’s relatives in Tennessee, and that she was doing well in school.
The Court of Appeals first determined that the Juvenile Court properly had jurisdiction of the petition to relocate. Having determined this, it next had to determine whether the parties had the daughter for “substantially equal” amounts of time. The trial court had concluded that they did not, and the Court of Appeals agreed. In this case, the mother had the daughter 34.6% of the time, and the father had her 65.4% of the time. On these facts, the Court of Appeals agreed that the trial court’s decision on this point should be affirmed. It cited earlier cases in which 36/64 and 40/60 splits were held not to be substantially equal.
Since the time was not substantially equal, the only remaining issue under the Parental Relocation Statute was whether there was a reasonable purpose for the move. The Court of Appeals agreed with the trial court that, taken together, the reasons given by the father were reasonable: He had better job opportunities and an actual job offer. The daughter would have a strong support system with family in Ohio. And the father had been approved to buy a home.
For these reasons, the Court of Appeals affirmed and permitted the father to relocate.
No. E2003-02738-COA-R3-CV (Tenn Ct. App. 2005).
See original opinion for exact language. Legal citations omitted.
To learn more, buy Miles Mason, Sr.’s book, Tennessee Parent Relocation Law (available on Amazon and Kindle), see Tennessee Parent Relocation Statute Law | Modifying the Parenting Plan, and our Tennessee Family Law Blog with more detailed cases sorted by relocation cases granted and denied.
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