Dad Gets Custody After Mom Moves to TX with New Husband

Tennessee child custody and parenting relocation case summary.

Dad Gets Custody After Mom Moves to TX with New Husband

Travis G. Bumbalough v. Rachel M. Hall

The child in this Putnam County, Tennessee, case was born in 2016 to unwed parents.  The father was present at the birth and even cut the cord.  He voluntarily acknowledged paternity.

The mother, father, and child lived together with the mother’s parents for the first month of the child’s life, after which they moved to Cookeville, Tennessee, where they resided for two years with the father’s parents.  In 2019, they bought a home in Gallatin, Tennessee, but in late 2019, the mother ended the relationship and moved back with her parents.  After the breakup, they continued to share equal parenting time.

After becoming involved in a relationship with the administrator of the nursing home where she worked, there was an investigation, and ultimately, both resigned from their jobs.  The two were engaged, and shortly thereafter, the new fiancé got a six-figure job offer in Texas.  The mother then informed the father that she was changing the custody schedule, and the father would have only seven days per month.

The mother moved with the child to Texas in 2020, and the father was unaware until he received a letter the next month.  She didn’t provide her new address or phone number, and the father was unable to contact the child for nine days.  The following month, the father filed a petition to establish paternity in the juvenile court.  Pending trial, each parent was to have the child for 42 day periods.

The final hearing was held in 2022 before Judge Steven D. Qualls.  The trial court named the father as primary residential parent, with the father having custody in Tennessee during the school year.  The mother was granted visitation in Texas during school breaks.  The father was granted decision making authority.

The court found that both parents were capable and had been equal caregivers.

The mother then appealed to the Tennessee Court of Appeals, which first summarized the standard of review before turning to the statutory factors applied in custody cases.

The mother focused on the child’s relationship with other family members in Texas.  She claimed that there was a preference for placing children together with their half-siblings, but the appeals court noted that there was no authority for this proposition.  Here, the lower court had pointed to the child’s family relationships in Tennessee, and the appeals court found no error.

The appeals court next analyzed the extent of each parent’s parenting involvement.  Once again, the appeals court agreed with the lower court’s analysis of the parties’ essentially equal involvement.

The mother had claimed that the child was “regressing” under the 50/50 parenting plan, but the lower court called this claim “unfounded.”  The appeals court agreed, and held that such determinations of a party’s credibility were best left to trial courts.

It also affirmed the lower court’s finding that the child’s remaining in Tennessee was in his best interest.

After its review of all of the statutory factors, the Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court’s ruling in all respects.

No. M2022-01003-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. July 7, 2023).

See original opinion for exact language.  Legal citations omitted.

To learn more, see Tennessee Parent Relocation Statute Law.

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.