Opinion ID: 1711352
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 10

Heading: Whether the chancellor erred in awarding legal custody to Ray and alternate physical custody to Julie.

Text: ¶ 38. The standard of review in cases involving child custody is limited. Lee v. Lee, 798 So.2d 1284, 1288 (Miss.2001) (collecting authorities). Reversal occurs only when the chancellor is manifestly in error or has applied an erroneous legal standard. Id. The evidence and credibility of a witness is the sole responsibility of the chancellor as well as the weight of this evidence. Id. In Lee, this Court set forth the Albright factors and held the following: To help guide us to a proper determination as to custody, the court considers the following factors in determining the child's best interests: (1) age, health and sex of the child; (2) a determination of the parent that has had the continuity of care prior to the separation; (3) which has the best parenting skills and which has the willingness and capacity to provide primary child care; (4) the employment of the parent and responsibilities of that employment; (5) physical and mental health and age of the parents; (6) emotional ties of parent and child; (7) moral fitness of the parents; (8) the home, school and community record of the child; (9) the preference of the child at the age sufficient to express a preference by law; (10) stability of home environment and employment of each parent and other factors relevant to the parent-child relationship. Albright v. Albright, 437 So.2d 1003, 1005 (Miss.1983). While the Albright factors are extremely helpful in navigating what is usually a labyrinth of interests and emotions, they are certainly not the equivalent of a mathematical formula. Determining custody of a child is not an exact science. 798 So.2d at 1288. However, [g]iven our standard of review, we need not reexamine all of the evidence to see if we agree with the chancellor's ruling; our charge is merely to see if the chancellor's decision is supported by credible evidence. Id. at 1289. ¶ 39. The chancellor devoted over seven pages of his opinion to the child custody issue. In his opinion, the chancellor made a thorough and detailed analysis of each Albright factor apart from factor 9, the preference of the child at the age sufficient to express a preference by law, which the chancellor found inapplicable. The end result of his analysis was that Ray should receive legal custody and Julie and Ray have alternate six (6) month periods of physical custody of the children. Julie's argument merely re-analyzes the Albright factors with a different outcome. Not surprisingly Julie's analysis finds that she should have custody of the children. A brief review of the chancellor's findings follows: