Case Name: Virginia MUNIZ, etc., Appellant, v. Juan MUNIZ, Appellee
Court: Florida District Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 2001-03-28
Citations: 789 So. 2d 370
Docket Number: No. 3D00-312
Parties: Virginia MUNIZ, etc., Appellant, v. Juan MUNIZ, Appellee.
Judges: Before SCHWARTZ, C.J., and SORONDO, and RAMIREZ, JJ.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 789
Pages: 370–380

Head Matter:
Virginia MUNIZ, etc., Appellant, v. Juan MUNIZ, Appellee.
No. 3D00-312.
District Court of Appeal of Florida, Third District.
March 28, 2001.
Rehearing Denied July 27, 2001.
Guy Spiegelman, Miami; Cynthia L. Greene, Miami, for appellant.
Douglas Isenberg, North Miami Beach, for appellee.
Before SCHWARTZ, C.J., and SORONDO, and RAMIREZ, JJ.

Opinion:
RAMIREZ, J.
Virginia Muniz appeals from an order which simultaneously denied her application to relocate her fourteen-year-old twin daughters from Miami to Jersey Island, United Kingdom, where she is now employed, and modified the award of primary physical residence of the children as provided in the final judgment of dissolution, from the mother to the children's father. We reverse under the authority of Perez v. Perez, 767 So.2d 513 (Fla. 3d DCA 2000), because a modification of primary physical residence cannot be based solely on the preference of the children.
When the parties' marriage dissolved on December 12, 1988, the mother was designated the primary residential parent of them twin daughters, who at the time were three years of age. In the summer of 1998, the mother accepted a promotion from her employer, Banco Bilbao Vizcaya, which, including benefits, would more than double her yearly earnings. This promotion, however, required her to move to Jersey Island. In October, 1998, the mother notified the father that she planned to relocate with the girls. The father subsequently filed a motion for in-junctive relief which resulted in an order that the children remain in Miami-Dade County with the father. In order to avoid a change in schools during the middle of the children's school year, the mother agreed that the father could serve as temporary residential parent from October, 1998 to May, 1999, when the school year would end. In any event, the children would have to transfer to a new school in the fall of 1999.
The mother first makes serious due process allegations which, if we were to affirm, would encourage trial by ambush. These allegations stem from the Guardian ad Litem's change in testimony. On September 20, 1999, the Guardian ad Litem testified that she had no recommendation on the ultimate outcome of the parents' custody dispute. On December 7, 1999, however, she changed her testimony and recommended that the children remain with the father. The father's counsel knew of the Guardian ad Litem's change in testimony because he recalled the Guardian ad Litem to the stand and never disclosed his intention to do so to opposing counsel until after the start of the hearing. Because we are reversing on the merits, however, this issue will not be addressed.
In Perez v. Perez, 767 So.2d 513 (Fla. 3d DCA 2000), we reversed a modification of custody where the wife moved to Utah and the trial court based its decision to change custody to the father on the preference of the children. We first stated that "[a] parent seeking to modify a prior custody award bears the extraordinary burden of demonstrating a substantial change in circumstances since the entry of the initial custody decree and that the child's best interest or welfare will be promoted by the change." Id. at 516. The majority held that, before modifying a custody award, Florida courts require "proof that a child's continuing residence with the custodial parent would be detrimental to or have an adverse impact upon the child." Id. In this case, the record is devoid of any evi dence that the mother's relocation would have an adverse effect upon the parties' twin girls. On the contrary, the trial judge found that the mother "offers her girls a role model of a professional woman on a successful career path, who is also an extremely devoted mother."
We also stated in Perez, that in the absence of compelling circumstances, a custodial parent's move to a foreign state was not itself a substantial change of circumstances which would support a change of custody. Id. at 517. In this case, the trial court stated that it had "heard substantial testimony regarding the life [the girls would lead] in Jersey and saw a video of the surroundings. It is quite lovely." The mother testified that the move would improve the general quality of life for the children. The uncontradicted evidence was that the girls would be attending private schools which are "feeder schools for Cambridge and Oxford."
A review of the trial court's careful and detailed order reviewing the criteria set forth in section 61.13(2)(d), Florida Statutes (1999), finds the parents essentially at equipoise, with the decisive factor being the preference of the children, as testified to by the Guardian ad Litem. Again, Perez, 767 So.2d at 518-19, explained that:
Generally speaking, the stated preference of a child in a modification proceeding is entitled to some weight if the child possesses sufficient maturity and understanding to make an intelligent choice. However, under Florida law, the stated preference of a child who possesses the requisite maturity to make an informed decision, without more, has never been found to be sufficient to sustain a change in primary residence, (citations and footnote omitted).
Thus, the stated preferences of the children cannot support the trial court's modification of custody in the absence of other viable or compelling reasons to modify what was, in this case, a ten-year-old custody order.
We therefore reverse and remand with directions that the court reinstate the mother as the primary residential parent and readjust the financial obligations accordingly.
Reversed and remanded.
. In fairness to the trial judge, the Perez decision was published on July 5, 2000, more than six months after she entered her Final Judgment on Modification and Relocation.