Justia Family Law Opinion Summaries

A circuit court entered a judgment divorcing Jason Grimmett from April Grimmett on the ground of adultery by Jason, and divided the couple's marital property. The Court of Civil Appeals affirmed the judgment without an opinion, and Jason petitioned the Alabama Supreme Court for certiorari review. The Supreme Court issued the writ to examine, among other things, a potential conflict in the law regarding whether adultery committed after a party files for divorce was a ground for divorce. Because the language chosen by the Legislature, specifying adultery as a ground for divorce, did not limit this ground to prefiling conduct, and because the Supreme Court's early cases distinguishing between prefiling and postfiling adultery had to be read in light of the procedural restrictions of equity practice under which they were decided, the Court affirmed the circuit court's judgment. View "Ex parte Jason Grimmett." on Justia Law

The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the district court awarding Father sole custody of the parties' daughter and denying Mother's request to end supervised visitation, holding that there was no error.The court in this case initially decided that it was in the child's best interests for Father to have physical custody of the child and the parents to share joint custody. Upon Father's motion, the court subsequently awarded Father sole legal and physical custody of the child, subject to Mother's supervised visitation. Father later filed a petition seeking to move Mother's visitation to another city. Mother counterclaimed, requesting her visitation no longer be supervised. The court ultimately moved Mother's visitation with the child and ordered that Mother's visitation remain supervised. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding that the district court did not abuse its discretion or violate Mother's constitutional right to familial association by denying Mother's request to end supervised visitation. View "Taulo-Millar v. Hognason" on Justia Law

The Supreme Court vacated the decision of the court of appeals and affirmed the juvenile court's order terminating a guardianship of a minor child that was established with parental consent, holding that there was no error.Young parents consented to a temporary guardianship for the paternal grandparents to serve as guardians of their minor daughter so that the parents could establish stability in their lives. After achieving that stability, Mother sought to terminate the guardianship. The juvenile court entered a termination order, concluding that the child's long-term interests warranted terminating the guardianship. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding that the juvenile court properly terminated the guardianship and placed the child in Mother's care pending modification of the parents' dissolution decree to establish physical and legal custody. View "In re Guardianship of L.Y." on Justia Law

The Supreme Court affirmed the decision of the district court denying Father's motion to modify the parties' physical custody designation and Father's child support obligation, holding that the new child support guidelines alone did not constitute a change in circumstances necessary to support a motion to modify a child support obligation.When the parties divorced, they agreed upon joint physical custody of their children. Father later filed a motion requesting that the court modify the order to reflect the parties' actual arrangement and to modify the child support obligations. The district court denied the motion, concluding that there was no change in circumstances that warranted modifying custody. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding that the district court did not err in concluding that there was no change in circumstances that warranted modifying the child custody arrangement. View "Romano v. Romano" on Justia Law

Respondent-father Nedim Suljevic appealed a circuit court order denying his motion for the court to exercise temporary emergency jurisdiction over the parties’ custody dispute pursuant to New Hampshire’s Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act (UCCJEA), and granting petitioner-mother Senay Akin's petition to enforce the parties’ Turkish child custody order. The parties, who both have or previously had Turkish citizenship, were married in December 2010 and had a daughter the following year. According to Mother, the parties married in New Hampshire, and when she was pregnant with their daughter, she moved to Turkey while Father continued to reside in the United States. The parties’ daughter was born in Turkey in December 2011 and, until the events giving rise to this proceeding occurred in 2019, lived in Turkey continuously, attending school and receiving medical care there. The parties were divorced by a Turkish court in January 2015; the decree granted Mother sole custody of the child and allowed Father to have visitation with her. In 2019, Mother agreed that the daughter could spend July and August in the United States to visit Father. However, at the end of this two-month visit, Father refused to return the daughter to Mother. Mother made repeated overtures to Father for the daughter’s return, but he refused her entreaties. Mother accepted employment in Massachusetts during the 2020-2021 timeframe so that she could visit the daughter. During this time, Father continually rejected Mother’s requests for the daughter’s return to her custody. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic and difficulty finding a suitable attorney, Mother did not bring a court action for the daughter’s return until filing the underlying petition for expedited enforcement of a foreign child custody order in April 2021. Father was served with Mother’s petition, and then filed his own motion at issue here. As grounds for his motion, Father argued Mother physically abused the daughter while in the Mother's custody. Mother objected to Father’s motion, asserting that he had “refused repeatedly to return [her] daughter” and had issued threats. Mother asserted that Father “should not be allowed to litigate in New Hampshire when the Turkish order controls custody.” After review, the New Hampshire Supreme Court upheld the circuit court's decision to deny Father's request, and to grant Mother's petition to enforce the parties' Turkish child custody order. View "In the Matter of Akin & Suljevic" on Justia Law

The juvenile court exercised dependency jurisdiction over minor A.V. under Welfare and Institutions Code section 300 and removed her from the custody of her mother, S.V. (mother). Mother challenged the sufficiency of the evidence supporting the court’s exercise of jurisdiction as well as the resulting disposition order. She argued in the alternative that the court denied her due process right to be heard at the jurisdictional hearing when it made the challenged findings in her absence. The Court of Appeal agreed with mother’s latter contention and reversed without reaching her sufficiency of the evidence challenge. View "In re A.V." on Justia Law

The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the district court awarding David Cook custody of the two minor children he shared with Charmaine Parker, holding that the district court did not err.When Cook and Parker divorced, Parker received custody of the parties' two children. The children were later taken into protective custody and then placed with Cook when Parker was accused of assaulting the children's older half-sibling. Cook filed a civil case asking the district court to modify the original custody order to award him custody of the children. The district court entered judgment in favor of Cook. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding that the district court did not abuse its discretion when it granted Cook's motion to strike five of Parker's expert witnesses and denied Parker's request to present surrebuttal testimony. View "Parker v. Cook" on Justia Law

The First Circuit affirmed the judgment of the district court granting Father's petition seeking the return of seven-year-old Child from Massachusetts to Brazil, holding that the district court did not err or abuse its discretion.Father filed his petition pursuant to The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction and the International Child Abduction Remedies Act, alleging that Mother removed Child from Brazil to Massachusetts without his authorization. The district court granted Father's petition and ordered that Child be returned to Brazil. The First Circuit affirmed, holding that the district court (1) did not err in finding that returning Child to Brazil would not expose Child to a grave risk of harm; and (2) did not err in declining to consider Child's views. View "Vieira v. De Souza" on Justia Law

The Supreme Court affirmed the order of the juvenile court placing physical custody of B.C. with Mother, from whom B.C. had initially been taken, holding that there was no error.B.C. was removed from Mother's home pending adjudication in proceedings following a petition alleging child endangerment. The juvenile court later granted the Department of Health and Human Services' motion for a placement change and ordered that the physical custody of B.C. be placed with Mother upon her completion of certain conditions. The juvenile court also considered and overruled Father's motion for legal custody and placement of B.C. Father appealed, arguing that the order exceeded the juvenile court's authority. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding that the juvenile court's order placing B.C. with Mother pursuant to the terms of a transition plan were consistent with this Court's opinion and mandate. View "In re Interest of A.A." on Justia Law

Donna Wald petitioned the North Dakota Supreme Court to exercise its original jurisdiction and issue a writ of supervision directing the district court to vacate an order denying her demand for a change of judge and to grant the demand. Donna and Gerard Wald divorced in 2019. The Honorable Daniel Narum was the presiding judge in the divorce action. Donna was awarded hay bales and other assets in the property distribution. After entry of the divorce judgment, Donna moved for contempt or in the alternative for redistribution of property, claiming she was unable to retrieve the hay bales awarded to her, and Gerard refused to turn the bales over. The district court denied her motion. Donna appealed, and the property distribution and denial of the post-judgment motion were affirmed on appeal. In 2021, Donna sued Gerard for unjust enrichment and tortious conversion, alleging the hay bales awarded to her in the divorce judgment were worth $242,216; she had not received any of the hay bales; Gerard kept the bales for his own use or sold them for his own gain; and she was deprived of the value, use, and benefit of the bales. She requested the district court to award her $242,000 in damages. Judge Narum was assigned to the case, and Donna filed a demand for a change of judge. Donna argued she complied with the statutory requirements for a change of judge and the court erred by denying her request. The North Dakota Supreme Court denied Donna's petition, concluding the district court did not err when it denied the demand for a change of judge. View "Wald v. Hovey, et al." on Justia Law