Mom Loses Custody Fight After Showing Contempt for Parenting Plan

The child in this Tennessee case was born in Lauderdale County in 2015 to unwed parents.  Later that year, a parenting plan was made naming the mother as the primary residential parent, with the father receiving 120 days of parenting time.  In 2021, the father filed a petition to transfer custody to Dyer County, and to change custody.  Among other things, the father submitted evidence that the mother had failed to meet the father to exchange the child on 18 occasions.  And on days when the father was to pick the child up at school, the mother kept the child home from school.

The trial court found that these incidents, along with the child’s anxiety, constituted a material change of circumstances warranting a change of custody.  After analyzing the relevant factors, the court held that naming father primary residential parent was in the child’s best interest.

While the case was pending, the mother sought to introduce psychiatric records concerning the child.  The trial court denied this request, on the grounds that the mother had not provided the father with sufficient advance notice.

The father also requested that he be allowed to move with the child to South Carolina, for a new job opportunity.  He gave the mother notice of the proposed relocation, and the mother did not file a petition in opposition.  She took the position that this was not necessary, given the pending court proceeding.  The trial court, Judge Jason L. Hudson, agreed with the father that this was fatal to the mother’s case, but nonetheless made a decision that the move was in the child’s best interest.

After the final order, the mother appealed to the Tennessee Court of Appeals, which first addressed the evidentiary issue regarding the counseling records.  It dealt quickly with this issue by noting that the mother had not made an offer of proof.  Therefore, the issue was not preserved for appeal.

The mother next argued that the lower court erred in modifying custody.  The appeals court conceded that preserving custody would add stability to the child’s life.  But it focused on the need for the other parent’s visitation, and how the mother had denied the father of this right.  It pointed out that the mother had demonstrated continuous contempt for the parenting plan.  Under those circumstances, the lower court was within its discretion in modifying custody.

On the issue of relocation, the Court of Appeals agreed with the father that the mother had not made a timely objection to the father’s notice of intention to relocate.  It held that the relocation must be allowed for that reason.

For these reasons, the Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court’s ruling.

No. W2023-00336-COA-R3-JV (Tenn. Ct. App. Dec. 19, 2024).