Custody Ruling Tossed After Court Fails to Make Factual Findings

The husband in this Dyer County, Tennessee, case filed for divorce in 2023.  In his complaint, he asked to be named primary residential parent of the parties’ minor child.  In an amended complaint, it was revealed that a second child had just been born, and he proposed that both parents be named joint primary residential parents, with 182.5 days of parenting time each.

The wife did not file an answer, and the husband requested a default judgment, which was granted.  A hearing was held, and the parenting plan named the husband the primary residential parent, with the wife having 80 days of parenting time, to be supervised.

The wife, acting as her own attorney, then filed a notice of appeal with the Tennessee Court of Appeals.

The husband first requested that the appeal be dismissed because the wife’s failure to comply with all of the rules regarding her brief.  But the appeals court declined to take this drastic step, noting the state’s longstanding policy favoring resolution of appeals on their merits.

The wife next argued that the lower court had not properly applied the relevant factors regarding custody.  While the wife had defaulted, the court cited a 2017 case holding that even in the case of a default judgment, the court must engage in the “highly-factually-intensive” analysis of the relevant factors in making a custody decision.

In this case, there had been no evidentiary hearing and no factual findings.  This was error, because the court must make specific findings regarding the best interests of the child.

The husband argued that the outcome should be different because the wife failed to order a transcript of the proceedings in the lower court.  But this argument was rejected.

For these reasons, the Court of Appeals vacated the lower court’s decision and remanded the case.  The parenting plan would remain in effect, however, until acted upon by the lower court.

The decision of the Court of Appeals was authored by Judge Carma Dennis McGee.

No. W2024-01001-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. May 15, 2025).

See original opinion for exact language.  Legal citations omitted.

To learn more, see Child Custody Laws in Tennessee and our video, How is child custody determined 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.