Court Opinion

ID: 9663924
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 23:55:09.851096+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:14:59.159017
License: Public Domain

MILLER, Chief Justice
(concurring specially).
I am in full agreement with the pronouncements and holding of the majority opinion. I do feel compelled, however, to express my frustration created by the belief that this court’s opinion will have no meaningful, realistic value to the parties to this appeal. It solely has academic value to parties involved in similar litigation in the future.
The child who is the subject of this legal dispute was born on April 10, 1974. Thus, she will be eighteen years old within several weeks of the issuing of this opinion. At that time, as an emancipated adult, she, and not her parents or the judge, will decide whether she lives in Minnesota or South Dakota.
It must be remembered, too, that these proceedings were commenced by father because the girl wanted to live with him. Mother conceded that was her daughter’s preference, but still persisted in this litigation.
In awarding custody of older children courts may consider the child’s preference. SDCL 30-27-19. (In fact, in appointing a guardian for a child fourteen or over, the court is generally bound by the child’s preference. SDCL 30-27-20.) Admittedly, the child’s custody preference is permissive and not mandatory. Isaak v. Isaak, 278 N.W.2d 445 (S.D.1979); Jasper v. Jasper, 351 N.W.2d 114 (S.D.1984); Shoop v. Shoop, 460 N.W.2d 721 (S.D.1990). However, to be embroiled in custody litigation contra to the specific, stated wishes of a seventeen-year-old appears to me to be absurd.