Equal Parenting Inappropriate Due to Contentious Relationship

Tennessee child custody case summary in divorce.

Karthik Rajendran v. Mary Florence Rajendran

The mother and father in this Sumner County, Tennessee, case were married in 2013 and had one daughter who was born in 2015.  The father filed for divorce in 2017, and both parties asked to be named primary residential parent.

The trial court, Judge Joe Thompson, ultimately named the mother the primary residential parent.  Initially, the mother was granted substantially more parenting time.  But starting in July 2019, the parties were to have equal time on alternating weeks.  The trial court also ordered that all major decisions would be made jointly.  The mother appealed to the Tennessee Court of Appeals.  She argued that equal parenting time was not in the child’s best interest, and that the trial court should not have granted joint decision making authority.

The appeals court started by noting that trial courts have broad discretion when it comes to custody matters.  However, a decision can be reversed if it is an erroneous assessment of evidence or relies on reasoning that causes an injustice.

The mother pointed to a number of statutory factors where she believed the lower court had ruled erroneously.  For example, the trial court had found that the amount of time spent by each parent with the child was a factor that equally favored both parties.  The trial court had noted that the mother did, indeed, spend more time with the child, but found the factor to be equal since the father was able to take care of the child’s needs when he did have time with her.  She also took issue with the factor involving love, affection, and emotional ties.

The appeals court noted that it was a close question on some of these issues.  There were no specific factual findings in the record that would shed light on these rulings.  But it agreed that these factors favored the mother.

The mother also argued that the child had close relationships with her relatives, and that this factor strongly favored her.  While it found that this issue wasn’t necessarily dispositive, the appeals court found that this issue was relevant.

After sifting through all of the statutory factors, the appeals court ultimately concluded that five factors favored the mother, and that zero favored the father.  While four factors were equal, the appeals court found that the factors favoring the mother should have been given more weight.

After weighing the best interests of the child, the appeals court ultimately concluded that an equal parenting arrangement was not appropriate.  It noted that there were issues of mistrust between the parties, and the trial court had specified the methods of communication for the parties. 

Even though it noted that the mother was not completely without blame, the Court of Appeals held that a joint parenting arrangement was not workable.

For these reasons, the Court of Appeals reversed the lower court’s ruling and remanded the case.  The costs of the appeal were assessed against the father.

No. M2019-00265-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. Sep. 16,  2020).

See original opinion for exact language.  Legal citations omitted.

To learn more, see Child Custody Laws 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.