Opinion ID: 2383520
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Internal Consistency of a Discretionary Order

Text: A second principle, beyond the equitable and statutory requirement that the court must act in the best interest of the child, also bounds a trial court's discretion. A court order must be internally consistent. As the trial court must follow applicable principles of equity, so must it follow principles of logic. It must avoid issuing an inherently contradictory order. The District Court order allocating parental rights and responsibilities between Barry Rodrigue and Suzanne Brewer fails to adhere to this fundamental principle of discretion. The order is internally inconsistent. The order assigns to Rodrigue and Brewer the ultimate in shared parental rights and obligations: to provide their son a primary home. This shared responsibility for guiding and guarding their child's growth and development, just provided by the trial court, is immediately shattered by the trial court's assigning to the father sole decision-making power over the boy's education. The court has given the father the power to place the child in any school he decides, even if such placement destroys shared residency. Such an inherently contradictory allocation of parental rights and responsibilities cannot be justified as a response to the parents' inability to resolve their conflicts. Although shared parental rights and responsibilities generally may be appropriate, such co-parenting is not always in the best interest of the child and is especially inappropriate when the parties are found to be unable to divorce themselves from the stress and rancor that characterized their short-term marriage. I would vacate the judgment of the District Court.