Dad Failed to Show Changed Circumstances to Modify Custody

Tennessee child custody modification case summary.

Mary Alice Akins v. Griff Elliott Akins

The  mother and father in this Wilson County, Tennessee, were the parents of a child born in 2008 and were divorced in 2013.  The permanent parenting plan named the mother as the primary residential parent with 265 days of residential parenting time.  The father was awarded 100 days of supervised parenting time.  The father suffered from various illnesses, including a bipolar condition and migraines.  The supervision requirement was because of his medical conditions.  The parties agreed to ease some of these restrictions over the years, and in 2015, the father came to court to ask for co-equal visitation.  A hearing was held in 2017, but it was apparent that little had changed in the past few years.  In particular, the trial court held that the father had not proven that there had been a substantial change of circumstances warranting a change in visitation.  Therefore, the father was denied a change, and he appealed to the Tennessee Court of Appeals.

The appeals court first noted that the trial court’s fact findings have a presumption of correctness, which is not overturned unless the evidence preponderates against them.

The father had made a number of arguments, such as the resolution of some of his medical conditions.  But after examining the relevant statutes, the appeals court agreed with the lower court that these did not constitute a material change of circumstances.  In particular, the appeals court found that the evidence did not preponderate against the lower court’s findings.  Accordingly, this portion of the lower court’s order was affirmed.

The father did fare a little better when it came to attorney’s fees.  The trial court had awarded the mother her attorney’s fees, and the father also appealed this portion of the judgment.  But when the appeals court examined the relevant statute, it concluded that the award was inappropriate.

For these reasons, the Court of Appeals affirmed in part and reversed in part, and sent the case back to the lower court for further proceedings.

No. M2017-00594-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. Jul. 3,  2019).

See original opinion for exact language.  Legal citations omitted.

To learn more, see Modifying Custody & Parenting Plans.

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.