Court Opinion

ID: 9717334
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 07:01:57.812951+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:52.624515
License: Public Domain

*181DeBRULER, Justice,
concurring in result.
This case and Lamb v. Wenning (1992), Ind., 600 N.E.2d 96, involve the modification of an existing order granting joint legal custody. In Lamb, this Court concluded that the same legal standard should apply to both changing a residential arrangement within a joint custody order and changing custody from one parent to another. In the process of so concluding, this Court did state, as quoted in the majority opinion, that a change in circumstances of a noncustodial parent is a relevant factor to be considered in applying this standard. There is now a basis in these two cases for the induction that a change in circumstances of a non-custodial parent is a relevant factor in deciding whether to make a change of custody from a custodial parent to a noncustodial parent. With this induction I am at odds.
When a trial court grants custody to one parent, it necessarily concludes that a child will be provided that care which is necessary to its welfare. Ind.Code § 31.1-11.5-21. That care is too often humble, barely sufficient. The trial court nevertheless has confidence that such custody is in the best interests of the child. It should be plain, even to the novice ethicist, that after such a grant of custody, improvement in the circumstances of the non-custodial parent, as for example where a noncustodial parent recovers from alcohol and drug addiction and goes from rags to riches, is totally irrelevant to deciding whether a change of custody is in order. Our legal, moral, and ethical codes require a declaration of this irrelevance. The law should relegate such fortunate noncustodial parents to lifting the lives of their offspring without gaining legal custody. The opportunities for doing so are unlimited.