Opinion ID: 1925765
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Modification of Original Custody Order.

Text: Appellant first argues that there has been no substantial change of circumstances warranting modification of the original custody order which gave custody to the father. We, on the other hand, conclude that there has beyond any doubt been a significant change in the circumstances relevant to Joseph's best interests and that a reconsideration of the original custody order was mandated. We recognize that modification of an existing custody order should not be undertaken lightly, largely due to our ever present concern for preserving stability in the life of the subject child. Hartman v. Hartman, 328 Pa.Super. 154, 476 A.2d 938 (1984); Daniel K.D. v. Jan. M.H., 301 Pa.Super. 36, 446 A.2d 1323 (1982). The burden of proving a change in circumstance is on the party seeking modification of the custody order. Burr v. Morgart, 339 Pa.Super. 341, 488 A.2d 1155 (1985). However, where there is a substantial change in the situation affecting the child, a court must consent to reconsider the custody situation in light of that change to ensure the continued overall welfare of the child. Id. Beyond the uniform reiteration of the foregoing general standard of decision, there is little consistency in our decisions regarding modification of custody orders. This is in large part due to the particularly fact sensitive nature of such cases. The court is faced with reviewing the broad scenario of the competing parties' lives and assessing the impact on the child of various occurrences in those lives since the original custody order. Nevertheless, we have surveyed the applicable cases and have drawn several conclusions to guide our review of the instant case. First, as we have stated, we are always and ultimately concerned with the welfare of the child and we take as a given that stability in the child's life contributes to that welfare. However, we are also mindful that stability is not to be preserved when there are other reasons why the environment in which the child is living under the present custody order is no longer the one that will overall serve the child's best interests. Parker v. MacDonald, 344 Pa.Super. 552, 496 A.2d 1244 (1984). Because the child's welfare is paramount, we evaluate the alleged changes in circumstance with an eye to whether they have impacted on the child. Burr v. Morgart, supra ; Hartman v. Hartman, supra ; Commonwealth ex rel. Myers v. Myers, 468 Pa. 134, 360 A.2d 587 (1976); Commonwealth ex rel. Grimes v. Grimes, 281 Pa.Super. 484, 422 A.2d 572 (1980). Changes that do not have such an impact are irrelevant. In evaluating the changes in circumstance allegedly warranting reconsideration, we also must keep in mind that there is almost no single factor that alone compels reconsideration. As the father in the instant case correctly indicates, neither the remarriage of one or both parents nor certain changes in residence, for example, will alone necessarily justify reconsideration. Burr v. Morgart, supra ; Hartman v. Hartman, supra ; Daniel K.D. v. Jan M.H., supra . Appellant is equally correct in asserting that the only circumstances relevant to reconsideration are those that have occurred since the entry of the original custody order. To consider those facts existing prior to or at the time of the prior order merely leads to relitigation of issues already determined. Burr v. Morgart, supra ; Barclay v. Barclay, supra . On the other hand, facts like changes in marital status or residence are not irrelevant to our inquiry. We have found a substantial change of circumstance in at least one case involving the remarriage of both parents after the initial custody order. Espersen v. Davidow, 359 Pa.Super. 531, 519 A.2d 479 (1986). In Espersen, both parties had remarried after the initial custody order. We considered the fact that the child had a strained relationship with the new wife of the father, who was the custodial parent under the existing custody order. We also considered that the child apparently had a good relationship with her mother and her new husband, who demonstrated that they could provide a good home to the child. We have also identified other factors as being of central importance in finding a substantial change of circumstance. For example, we have emphasized that when a custodial parent obstructs contact between the child and the non-custodial party which was required by the existing custody order, the best interests of the child may no longer be served by that order and a reconsideration may be warranted. Pamela J.K. v. Roger D.J., 277 Pa.Super. 579, 419 A.2d 1301 (1980). Thus, in determining whether changed circumstances exist, the court's focus must be on the child and not the custodians. This is because the law recognizes that exposing a child to the possibility of a new custodial arrangement may threaten the child's stability and well-being. Therefore, the law requires that a predicate to challenging a custodial arrangement must be a showing of changed circumstances. For example, in determining whether there are changed circumstances, a court should not look only at the fact of remarriage of one or both parents but the court should inquire whether the fact of remarriage has resulted in changed circumstances for the child. In the instant case, we find that all of the changes in circumstance considered by the trial court and listed above are both significant and have impacted on Joseph. They are variously relevant to the place where and the home situation in which Joseph lives, his relationships with the members of his former step-family, the treatment of Joseph by his father and the displayed attitude of his father toward the grandparents. There is no doubt whatsoever that the tumultuous situation in this child's life since the original custody order of August 2, 1984, and the now perceived results of that tumult are changed circumstances warranting a review of the prior custody arrangement. Appellant father concedes that at least two of the enumerated changes in circumstance did occur since the original custody order. Appellant concedes the deterioration of appellant's second marriage and various moves necessitated by . . . [the father's] career changes. Brief for Appellant at 12. However, appellant argues that these do not warrant reconsideration of the custody order, and states what appears to be the major theme of appellant's argument throughout this appeal, as follows: . . . a parent's unsettled past should not be emphasized at the expense of and without sufficient consideration for current stability. Id., citing Hartman, supra . Although we will address this recurrent theme at greater length below, we note at this juncture that it has no relevance to whether there were substantial changed circumstances here. The instability of appellant's life, evidenced by his separation and then divorce from his second wife, his termination of his military career and several changes of residence, arose after the entry of the original order. This instability in turn produced instability for Joseph, which has temporarily abated only because since April 1986 he has been in the grandparents' temporary custody. Moreover, as of the time of the custody modification hearing, this instability in appellant's life had not been replaced by any noteworthy stability. Thus, there is no analogy between the Hartman case, on which appellant relies, and this case. Although in Hartman the court did choose to de-emphasize the unsettled nature of the custodial parent's life since the original custody order in deciding whether there were changed circumstances, it did so because it found that at the time of the modification hearing and for over a full year before that hearing, the custodial parent's life had been quite stable and that the child in question was doing well. Id. 328 Pa.Super. at 160-61, 476 A.2d at 941. The Hartman court specifically stated that the unsettled past of the custodial parent's life should not be emphasized only where that instability has not had an ongoing negative effect on the child. Id. (citing In re Leskovich, 253 Pa.Super. 349, 385 A.2d 373 (1978)). Accord Michael T.L. v. Marilyn J.L., 525 Pa.Super. 42, 525 A.2d 414, 418 (1987). In the present case, we are not confronted with nearly so simplistic a situation as that of a custodial parent who has merely remarried and moved once or twice since the original custody order, but who has then settled into a stable relationship, residence and job. Here, we have not just a change of residence since the first custody order, but rather several relocations, some interstate and some intercontinental, some made with the father and some made without him. We have not just a remarriage, but a deterioration of the very marriage that had provided the stable home environment which convinced the trial court to enter the original custody order in the first place. We have also the abandonment of Joseph by the father to the second wife, both in England and in letting her take Joseph back to Florida without the father. We have the father's radically changed employment situation, which has gone from a ten-year military career to no job and no job prospects. In such a situation, it would have been a gross abuse of discretion for the trial court not to have reconsidered the existing custody order. Before we conclude our discussion of this issue, we note that appellant raises two other specific concerns regarding the trial court's analysis of the changed circumstances issue. For purposes of completeness, we will address both of these concerns briefly. Appellant asserts that the trial court erred by basing its finding of changed circumstances on facts existing prior to the initial custody order and by penalizing the father for being in the military service overseas. Neither argument has merit. First, appellant is simply wrong in saying that the trial court considered facts prior to the first custody order in finding changed circumstances. In so stating, appellant has cited us to three pages of the trial court's opinion. Notably, only one of these pages is actually in the section of that opinion that addresses changed circumstances. The other references are to the areas of the opinion where the trial court was either setting forth the general factual background of the case or discussing the father's past conduct in connection with evaluating whether Joseph's best interests would be served by granting custody to the father. The only actual reference to the court's discussion of changed circumstances is to the area of the opinion where the court recites the history of Joseph's custody from his birth to the present and notes that for six and one-half of Joseph's eight years, he has lived with his grandparents. This fact is undoubtedly relevant to a changed circumstance analysis. As we have stated, modifying custody orders raises a concern for preserving stability in the child's life. By referring to Joseph's history of living with his grandparents even prior to the original custody order, the trial court was merely stating that in deciding whether to reconsider the original order, we need have no concern here for preserving any stability in Joseph's life. In fact, that order has provided Joseph with no stability at all. He is not even presently residing with his father pursuant to that order. Reconsidering that order at this time will in no way decrease the stability of Joseph's life and, in fact, can do nothing but increase that stability by enabling us to find which of the competing parties has actually provided an overall stabilizing effect in Joseph's life and to award them custody. Appellant's contention that in considering whether there were changed circumstances the trial court penalized the father for being in the military is equally devoid of merit. Once again, none of the areas of the trial court opinion cited by appellant where the trial court referred to the father's military service are in the portion of the opinion on changed circumstances. In fact, in considering whether there were changed circumstances, the trial court noted that since the original order the father had left the military and was now unemployed. Thus, the court clearly would have been less inclined to find a change in circumstance if the father was still in the military and earning an income as he had been when the original order was entered. [1]