Court Opinion

ID: 9597678
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 01:02:01.863073+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:19:09.188728
License: Public Domain

Betty C. Dickey, Chief Justice. Bonnie Weiss Medlin appeals a Polk County Circuit Court order entered on May 21, 2003, granting visitation rights to Jesaca and Jamee Weiss with their half-sister Raegan, appellant’s daughter. The trial court ordered visitation to be concurrent with that of noncustodial parent Tim Weiss, father of all the girls, as set forth in the trial court’s order ofMarch 10, 1999. The trial court further added that visitation rights of the siblings shall be pursuant to Ark. Code Ann. § 9-13-102 (Supp. 2002). This court affirms the trial court, clarifying the March 10,1999 order delineating parental visitation rights, but reverses the trial court as to sibling visitation rights pursuant to § 9-13-102. Bonnie and Tim Weiss married on October 30, 1993, and had one child, Raegan. They were divorced on March 10, 1999, and custody of Raegan was given to Bonnie, with visitation for Tim from 6 P.M. Friday until 6 P.M. Sunday on alternate weekends. At the time of the divorce, Bonnie neither requested, nor was awarded, child support. Later in 1999, Tim remarried his first wife, Ronda, with whom he had had two daughters prior to his marriage with Bonnie. When Tim’s out-of-town job required that he leave at noon on Sundays Bonnie demanded that Raegan be returned early to her care, and would only allow sibling visitation with the two half-sisters in Bonnie’s home. On November 21, 2002, Bonnie filed a petition asking for child support for Raegan, and Tim counterclaimed that Bonnie “has consistently failed, refused and neglected to allow visitation with the parties’ minor child.” On December 26, 2002, Ronda filed a motion to intervene on behalf of Jesaca and Jamee, half-sisters, asking that they be allowed to exercise visitation with Raegan during Tim’s regular visitation times, whether Tim was there or not. At a hearing on March 12, 2003, Weiss testified that his job required that he travel to other states and he was away from his home during certain times while Reagan was in his care, namely Sunday afternoons. Tim, Ronda, and the half-siblings wanted Raegan’s visitation to continue until 6:00 P.M. Sunday; therefore, they filed the petition seeking third party visitation rights under Ark. Code Ann. § 9-13-102 (Supp. 2002), which provides: The circuit courts of this state, upon petition from any person who is a brother or sister, regardless of the degree of blood relationship, or, if the person is a minor, upon petition by a parent, guardian, or next friend in behalf of the minor, may grant reasonable visitation rights to the petitioner so as to allow the petitioner the right to visit any brother or sister, regardless of the degree of blood relationship, whose parents have denied such access. The circuit courts may issue any further order which may be necessary to enforce the visitation rights. The trial court, in an April 2, 2003 letter to the parties, recognized that Ark. Code Ann. § 9-13-102 suffers, on its face, from the primary deficiency referenced in Linder v. Linder, 348 Ark. 322, 72 S.W.3d 841 (2002), in that the statute provides “no special weight to parent’s decision”, and that the statute suffers from an absence of a “best interests” standard. The trial court distinguished Troxel v. Granville, 530 U.S. 57, 120 S. Ct. 2054 (2000), and Linder, saying, in those cases, it was the right of a single custodial parent to be free of state intrusion in the parenting of a child. Here, the trial court continued, the dispute is between two fit parents, both parents have fundamental interests in parenting decisions, and the dispute is, essentially, which parenting decision should be given weight. The trial court also distinguished Seagrave v. Price, 349 Ark. 433, 79 S.W.3d 339 (2002), where there was only one fit parent. The trial court in this case noted, “[t]he sibling visitation statute, when applied in this situation, simply allows the court to give weight to the parenting decision of the noncustodial parent,” and ended the letter by questioning the appropriateness of Bonnie’s restrictive view of Tim’s visitation time. On April, 10, 2003, the trial court denied Bonnie’s motion to dismiss and granted Ronda’s motion to intervene. The trial court, in its May 28, 2003 order, denied the constitutional chailenge, and allowed half-sibling visitation concurrent with the March 10, 1999 order, setting out Tim’s parental visitation rights with Raegan. The trial court found that Bonnie “offered no convincing testimony for objecting to visitation between Raegan Weiss and her half sisters, Jesaca Autum Nikole Weiss and Jamee Dianah Lea Weiss.”  The sole point on appeal is appellant’s argument that “this statute is unconstitutional as written and as so applied to Bonnie Medlin under the facts of this case.” In support, she cites a number of cases addressing visitation rights with miñor children, beginning with Linder, supra, in which she quotes this court, “One of the substantive components that has emerged for the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee of due process of law is the liberty right of a parent to have and raise children.” Id at 342. Flowever, neither the Linder case nor any other case to which appellant refers are cases in which there are two fit parents, as there are here. In Re Custody of Nunn, 103 Wash. App. 871, 14 P.3d 175 (2000); Herbist v. Swan, 102 Cal. App. 4th 813, 125 Cal. Rper.2d 836 (2002); McGovern v McGovern, 201 Ariz. 172, 33 P.3d 506 (Ariz. Ct. App. 2001); State Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services v. Paillet, 270 Kan. 646, 16 P.3d 962 (Kan. 2001); Roby v. Adams, 68 S.W.3d 822 (Tex. Ct. App. 2002); Wickham v. Byrne, 199 Ill.2d 309, 769 N.E.2d 1, (Ill. 2002); Neal v. Nesvold, 2000 OK 90, 14 P.3d 547 (Okla. 2000); Hawk v. Hawk, 855 S.W.2d 572 (Tenn. 1993); Roth v. Weston, 259 Conn. 202 (2002). Both parents, as the trial court says, have fundamental interests in parenting decisions, and the dispute is essentially, which parenting decision should be given weight. The liberty right of a parent to rear a child applies to both parents, and neither the state nor the absent parent has the right to intrude upon the decisions a fit parent makes while the child in his or her custody regarding what is in that child’s best interest or with whom she can associate. The trial court, in that April 2, 2003 letter to both attorneys, recognized that the “sibling visitation statute, on its face, suffers from the primary deficiency identified in Linder, that is, no special weight to parent’s decision” and also suffers from an absence of a “best interests of the child” standard. We agree that the language of the statute may require revision by the legislature or its constitutionality addressed in some future case appealed to this court, but we decline to rule on it in this matter.  We review chancery cases de novo on the record, but we do not reverse a finding of fact by the chancery court unless it is clearly erroneous. Lake View School District No. 25 v. Huckabee, 351 Ark. 31, 91 S.W.3d 472 (2002). A finding of fact by the chancery court is clearly erroneous when, although there is evidence to support it, the reviewing court on the entire evidence is left with a definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed. Lake View, supra; Huffman v. Fisher, 337 Ark. 58, 987 S.W.2d 269 (1999). The appellant may challenge the constitutionality of the sibling visitation statute, but the real issue here is whether one parent can make decisions that impinge on the visitation rights of the other. The trial court questioned the appropriateness of requiring that the appellant’s father, Tim Weiss, be physically present during all hours of his visitation period. The court determined Raegan’s half-sisters could exercise visitation with her during that time, between 6:00 P.M. of Friday and 6:00 P.M. on Sunday, when the father had visitation rights pursuant to the March 10,1999 order. That order, signed by both Tim and Bonnie Weiss Medlin, allowed reasonable and liberal visitation by the father with Raegan, with no requirement that the father be continually in the presence of Raegan during each hour of those forty-eight hour visits. Tim Weiss, during those visitation periods, has the right, as a fit parent, to decide what is in the child’s best interest, including visitation between and among his daughters, in his own home, without his being physically present.  The fact that the trial court clouded the issue of parental visitation rights by ordering concurrent sibling visitation rights under Ark. Code Ann. § 9-13-102 requires that this case be reversed and remanded for the trial court to amend its order consistent with this court’s decision. Affirmed in part, reversed and remanded in part. Imber and Hannah, JJ., concur.