Dad Entitled to More than 80 Days Parenting Time

Tennessee child custody case summary on maximum participation in divorce.

Wafa Badawi Hindiyeh v. Waleed Fawzi Abed

The husband and wife in this Rutherford County, Tennessee, case were married in 2013 and had one child, who was born in 2015.  They separated and the wife filed for divorce in 2016.

Trial was held before Judge J. Mark Rogers, who granted the wife a divorce based on inappropriate marital conduct.  The court decided the property issues, and then turned to the parenting plan.  The court noted that the husband could have been seeing the child a lot more than he had been, and named the mother the primary residential parent.  The father was awarded parenting time every other weekend, as well as two weeks in the summer.  The father then appealed to the Tennessee Court of Appeals.  He raised various property issues, and also argued that he should have been granted equal parenting time, especially since the order didn’t take into account that the child would start school in a few years.

The appeals court first tackled the issue of parenting time.  The husband argued that the order should have allowed both parents to enjoy maximum participation in the child’s life, and there was nothing that justified his limited role.

The court reviewed the evidence and determined that there were facts favorable to both parents.  The child did spend more time with the mother, but despite the mother’s claims, there was no finding of physical abuse by the father.

The trial court had noted that the father’s work schedule might interfere with parenting time, but the appeals court held that this was not sufficient grounds to limit visitation.

The husband had been granted only 80 days per year of parenting time, and the Court of Appeals held that this was insufficient to meet the statutory goal of maximum possible involvement in the child’s life.

For this reason, the Court of Appeals vacated this portion of the order and sent the case back.  The appeals court did note that it was not absolutely necessary to plan specifically for a school schedule a few years in advance.

The Court of Appeals then went on to review the property issues in the case before remanding the case.

No. M2017-00410-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. Apr. 25, 2018).

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.