Title: Koller v. Koller

State: north-dakota

Issuer: North Dakota Supreme Court

Document:

377 N.W.2d 130 (1985) Barbara KOLLER, Plaintiff and Appellee, v. Lawrence KOLLER, Defendant and Appellant. Civ. No. 10904. Supreme Court of North Dakota. November 21, 1985. Edwin W.F. Dyer III, Bismarck (argued), and Phillip J. Brown, Bismarck, for plaintiff and appellee. Bryan L. Giese, Mandan, for defendant and appellant. VANDE WALLE, Justice. Lawrence Koller appealed from an order of the district court denying his motion to modify a previous divorce judgment by granting him custody of the parties' three minor children. Lawrence asserts on appeal that the trial court's findings are so "sparse" and "conclusory" that they should be deemed to be clearly erroneous. We disagree and affirm the order. In Ebertz v. Ebertz, 338 N.W.2d 651 (N.D.1983), this court set forth the two issues a trial court must resolve in deciding whether to grant or deny a motion to modify custody: *131 The burden of showing a change of circumstances which affects the best interests of the child and requires a change in custody is on the party seeking modification. Lapp v. Lapp, 336 N.W.2d 350 (N.D.1983). On appeal, this court will not set aside the trial court's determination unless it is clearly erroneous under Rule 52(a), N.D.R.Civ.P. Ebertz, supra; Lapp, supra. Following a hearing on Lawrence's motion, the trial court made the following oral findings from the bench: In addition to its oral findings, the trial court made the following written findings: Rule 52(a), N.D.R.Civ.P., requires the trial court to "find the facts specially." The purpose of the rule is to enable the appellate court to obtain a correct understanding of the factual issues determined by the trial court as a basis for its conclusions of law and judgment. See DeForest v. DeForest, 228 N.W.2d 919 (N.D.1975). Although more comprehensive findings by the trial court would have aided the process of judicial review in this case, the findings are minimally sufficient to enable this court to understand the rationale behind the court's denial of Lawrence's motion. Lawrence also asserts that the trial court's findings are so unsupported by the evidence as to make them clearly erroneous. We disagree. We have reviewed the record and we are not convinced that the trial court made a mistake in denying Lawrence's motion. It is sufficient, without going into detail, to note that there is substantial evidence in the record to support the trial court's determination that there has not been a change of circumstances so significant as to require a change of custody from Barbara to Lawrence. The order is affirmed. ERICKSTAD, C.J., and LEVINE, MESCHKE and GIERKE, JJ., concur. [1] Whether or not the trial court failed to recognize the possibility of placing custody of the children with Lawrence as an alternative to terminating parental rights is an issue not before us at this time. The findings in the original divorce decree as well as in the order before us do not fully explain the court's observation that Lawrence's history does not indicate he would be a proper custodial parent.