Opinion ID: 1697830
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Over-reliance on One Particular Albright Factor.

Text: ¶ 29. Jane also contends the chancellor weighted one Albright factor more heavily than the others and unfairly used it against her to award custody to Tom. Though she alleges the chancellor gave too much weight to one factor, her argument is essentially that the chancellor based his decision entirely on her prior use of illegal drugs, though testimony in later proceedings indicated she was no longer using drugs. Her contention that the chancellor only considered her drug use is based largely on a comment the chancellor made in the temporary hearing of July 17, 2002, when he stated that Jane's drug use could trump all the other Albright factors, even though the final judgment reflects the chancellor's consideration of additional evidence introduced in subsequent hearings. She contends that Albright itself prohibits a chancellor from giving more weight to any particular factor. See Albright, 437 So.2d at 1005 (Age should carry no greater weight than other factors to be considered....). She also cites to Hollon v. Hollon, 784 So.2d 943, 952 (Miss. 2001), where we reversed a chancellor's grant of custody to the natural father because that custody determination was based almost solely on the moral fitness factor. In Hollon, we found that the chancellor placed too much emphasis on the wife's alleged homosexual affair to the exclusion of the other evidence which clearly showed that the wife should have been granted custody. Hollon, 784 So.2d at 952. ¶ 30. Hollon, however, is clearly distinguishable from the case at bar. In Hollon, this Court found that the evidence clearly favored the wife and that the chancellor failed to make a specific ruling as to which parent, if either, was the favored parent under most of the Albright factors, and the husband even admitted that his only concern about the wife retaining custody was his fear that his son would be raised in a homosexual environment. Id. In the present case, the chancellor made a specific finding as to whether Tom or Jane or neither of the two was the favored parent under each factor. The chancellor did reference Jane's drug use under the physical and mental health and age factor and found that this factor weighed heavily in Tom's favor, yet his ultimate determination that Tom was more fit to retain custody was not based on this finding alone. The chancellor found for Tom on six of the nine Albright factors, noting that he had a more stable employment history, provided a more stable home environment which was reflective of his parenting skills, and that he was more morally fit than Jane. ¶ 31. While Jane's drug use may have weighed into each individual finding, the evidence clearly showed that her previous drug use affected several different aspects of her life. We find that the chancellor did not unfairly weigh Jane's prior illegal drug use against her to the exclusion of other evidence, as the evidence introduced at trial reflected that Tom clearly made better decisions concerning the care and upbringing of Catherine than Jane. The chancellor properly considered the poor decisions Jane made as a result of drug use, rather than the drug use itself, in making his findings under Albright, and Jane's allegation of error as to this issue is without merit.