Opinion ID: 2162981
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: stay order

Text: By order of the district court dated January 25, 1980, judgment was stayed pending appeal. The court further ordered that the stay would terminate concurrently with the expiration of the school year. Lynnette has asked this court to continue the stay order pending the issuance of a decision on appeal. We believe it is in the best interests of the child to continue the stay order until the expiration of the current school year. As there are only a few weeks remaining in the school term, a removal of Trina from her present custodial environment could, under the circumstances, be very disruptive and should be avoided at this juncture in time. In so concluding, we recognize that Lynnette retains the custody over Trina during a part of the custodial period afforded to Dale by the judgment (February 1 July 31). The provision of the district court's interim order which gave temporary custody to Lynnette and provided that Dale be allowed to visit the child at least one day each week does not mean that Dale is limited to a mere one day of visitation per week, as Lynnette seems to believe. Because we are continuing the custody of Trina in Lynnette until the close of the school year, we will expect Lynnette to afford Dale liberal visitation privileges, especially during that period of time. Because Lynnette will have had custody of Trina not only for the six months during which she was awarded custody (August 1 to January 31), but also for most of the six months during which Dale was awarded custody (February 1 to July 31), the judgment is modified so that Dale shall have custody of Trina from the day following the close of the school term this summer until January 1, 1981. Thereafter, Trina's custody shall alternate at six-month intervals between the parties on a January 1 through June 30 and July 1 through December 31 basis, with custody in Lynnette commencing on January 1, 1981. The judgment is further modified because of the foregoing modifications to provide that Dale shall be entitled to custody of Trina between 10:00 a. m. and 8:15 p. m. on Trina's birthday every other year, commencing in 1981. The judgment in all other respects is affirmed. So that the judgment may be appropriately modified, this case is remanded. VANDE WALLE, PEDERSON, PAULSON and SAND, JJ., concur.