Mom Can Relocate Back Home to CA to Escape Abusive Husband
Tennessee child custody case summary on relocation in divorce.
Jana Lea Purvis v. Dennis Patrick Purvis, II
The mother and father in this Bradley County, Tennessee, case were married in 2002 and had two daughters. The mother filed for divorce in 2015, and she was named the primary residential parent. She asked the court for permission to move with the girls to Chico, California, since she had grown up there and had family support. After a five day trial at which 27 witnesses testified, the trial court, Judge Lawrence H. Puckett, made its decision.
Judge Puckett found that the father had emotionally and verbally abused both the mother and the children. On one occasion, the father had thrown a TV remote control at the mother, which caused a black eye.
The mother was named the primary residential parent, and she was allowed to move to California. After trial, the father made a motion asking for additional parenting time. The trial court agreed, and granted father the entire summer vacation, as well as every spring break. The father then appealed to the Tennessee Court of Appeals. He argued that the trial court should not have allowed the mother to relocate to California. The mother also raised a number of issues, including the increased parenting time.
The appeals court first noted that the Tennessee parental relocation statute did not apply in the case, because that statute comes into play only when there is a change from an existing parenting plan. When the decision to relocate is part of the original parenting plan, the case is decided strictly upon an analysis of the best interests of the children.
In this case, the trial court had found that the mother was an “exemplary, outstanding person,” and that she had been the children’s primary caregiver. The trial court had noted that the mother was superior when it came to the children’s intellectual and moral development, and that the father was deficient in this regard.
In assessing this finding, the appeals court took a close look at the allegations of abuse. It found that the lower court’s findings of abuse were detailed, extensive, and unambiguous. The appeals court also looked at the lower court’s findings of a stronger support structure for the children in California.
Based upon its review of the record, the Court of Appeals concluded that it was in the children’s best interest to make the move to California. It went a step further and agreed with the mother that the lower court had gone too far in granting so much parenting time to the father. Therefore, it affirmed the portion of the order relating to relocation, but vacated the increased parenting time.
After discussing support issues, the Court of Appeals sent the case back to the lower court to adjust the parenting time.
No. E2016-02167-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. May 22, 2018).
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.
