Opinion ID: 1309652
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: the hearing of september 9, 1974

Text: Testimony established that the mother, after the June 21 hearing, went to Alaska in an attempt to make a new life for herself. She found employment as a housekeeper for a family with small children. The parents trusted her to take care of the children for as much as a week at a time during their absence. She began a program with a social services psychiatrist and a clinical psychologist and social workers. Her employers, who lived in a 15-room home, encouraged her to bring her children from North Dakota to Alaska and live in their home if she could obtain custody. Her psychiatrist reported on her improved condition in a letter stating that she sustained a very positive relationship with the employers, who valued her services highly and offered her a permanent position and invited her to have her children join their household. He stated that he and the other professional staff members of his clinic are in disagreement with the recommendations from the psychiatric evaluation in North Dakota: By no stretch of the imagination could she be considered to be in need of psychiatric hospitalization at the present time and the recommendation that she would require long term hospital care seems totally incompatible with her present level of functioning. . . . In my opinion [she] has truly taken charge of her emotional life and is now functioning at a level where she would be quite capable of resuming the responsibility for her own children. The reports of the other professionals were equally favorable. In the interim between the two hearings, the father had remarried. His new wife had custody of one child from a former marriage, while her former husband had custody of her other three children. The trial court again refrained from making a disposition order and continued the hearing until March 1, 1975, continued by agreement of the parties until April 4, 1975. The postponement, the judge stated, was made in order to give the parties more time to solidify their plans for the eventual return of custody of the children to one of the parents. He told the mother that one reason for the extra time was to give her time to sever relations with a married man in Alaska. The temporary placement of the children with the paternal grandparents was continued. From the transcript it appears that there might have been some confusion during this hearing as to the capacity in which the court was acting. The court correctly noted several times that the hearing was a deprivation hearing in juvenile court and would have no bearing on the custody granted by the divorce decree. But in finding deprivation the court made the following statements: In this instance, there was a divorce, the parties signed and agreed to a stipulation settling matters of custody, of child support and property, and this was an arrangement that was voluntarily entered into by these parties, by [the father] here and by [the mother], nobody forced them to sign that agreement. That was their agreement. The agreement at the time was [the mother] was to have the children and [the father] was to have right of visitation, reasonable visitations. That was the agreement of the parties, and the law is simply that I may not alter or modify that agreement after it is adopted in a divorceif this was doneI may not modify or alter that unless there is a material change in circumstances. What is the change of circumstances herethe change herethe change of circumstances is that [the mother] has had medical problems, been down at the hospital, apparently has received some treatment, has made progress. Is she back in the position she was at the time that [the father] here signed the agreement. [The father], on the other hand, sayswell I have married again since I signed this agreement. Marriage in itself is not sufficient to modify a divorce judgment. It is not considered a material change in circumstances. We are concerned with the best interests of the children. ..... I am not going to give [the father] the children here today. I am not going to give [the mother] the children. I am going to continue this hearing for a period of six months. During that period of time I expect [the mother] is going to make very definite arrangements as to her future. I am not saying for a moment here that either party is not qualified to have these childrennot saying that for one momentbut I do think 60 days is not enough time to solidify plan for [the mother] up in Alaska. Now for me to modify a divorce judgment, as I say, it takes a material change in circumstances, but as far as a deprived child petition is concerned just as soon as these children have reasonable parental care, this proceeding will be dismissed, but as I say, there must be some material change in circumstances. Because [the mother] has been down to mental hospital, received mental treatment, does not mean [she] cannot recover to handle these children. She most certainly can.