Court Opinion

ID: 9513299
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-06 22:33:57.899082+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:05:48.743219
License: Public Domain

MESCHKE, Justice,
dissenting.
[¶ 16] Because I believe this case is not moot, and I would reverse this order forcing grandparent visitation, I respectfully dissent.
[¶ 17] Additional background is useful to understand this ease. Before he ever had any real contact with these grandchildren, and without asking to visit them, Anthony Sposato sued for visitation with them on May 12, 1995. His petition was consolidated with a then-pending motion by the children’s father, Anthony’s son Thomas, to supersede the supervised visitation imposed because Thomas had emotionally and sexually abused these children. Those motions resulted in a September 19, 1995 order that continued restricted and supervised visitation with the children’s father, and also directed: “When the minor children’s grandfather is exercising any visitation with the minor children and the [father] is present, this visitation must also be supervised by a third-party.”
[t 18] Anthony thereafter visited his two grandchildren in their hometown of Devils Lake once in April 1996 for a few hours. Again without asking, Anthony moved in May 1996 to force the grandchildren to come to his home in Pelham, New York, for a visit of nearly a week over the 1997 New Year’s holiday.
[¶ 19] After a hearing, the trial court’s December 24, 1996 order compelled “over*215night, extended visitation [for Anthony Spo-sato] with his grandchildren from December 28, 1996 through January 3, 1997,” directed him to “be responsible for payment of all expenses associated with the children’s travel to and from the State of New York,” and directed their mother to “accompany the children to and from New York,” with Anthony to pay only her airfare and not “any expenses involved with [her] lodging.” This order apparently came too late to adjust necessary plane reservations in that busy holiday season.2
[¶ 20] This injunction set a time too short for full adjudication through appellate review before its expiration, and thus this order fits a classic exception to mootness. This was an actual controversy adjudicated by the trial court, it is clearly capable of repetition, and it is reasonably expected to be repeated. Since the trial court chose to compel these children to visit their unfamiliar paternal grandfather and his family in a distant state only during a specific week, the duration of the challenged order was too short to be fully reviewed on appeal before it expired. We should review it.
[¶ 21] “[A]n issue technically moot will not be considered moot if it is capable of repetition yet evading review_” Bies v. Obregon, 1997 ND 18, ¶ 10,558 N.W.2d 855, citing State v. Liberty Natl Bank and Trust Co., 427 N.W.2d 307, 309 (N.D.), cert. denied, 488 U.S. 956, 109 S.Ct. 393, 102 L.Ed.2d 382 (1988). “[T]he ‘capable of repetition, yet evading review’ doctrine is limited to situations where two elements combine: (1) the challenged action is in its duration too short to be fully litigated prior to its cessation or expiration, and (2) there is a reasonable expectation or demonstrated probability that the same complaining party will be subjected to the same action again.” 5 AmJur2d Appellate Review, § 646 (1995). “ ‘Reasonable expectation’ should not be equated with ‘demonstrated probability;’ rather these standards should be viewed in the disjunctive so that a controversy may be found to be capable of repetition based on expectations that, while reasonable, are hardly demonstrably probable.” Id. Honig v. Doe, 484 U.S. 305, 319 n. 6, 108 S.Ct. 592, 602 n. 6, 98 L.Ed.2d 686 (1988)(emphasis original), put it clearly: “Our concern in these eases, as in all others involving potentially moot claims, was whether the controversy was capable of repetition and not, as the dissent seems to insist, whether the claimant had demonstrated that a recurrence of the dispute was more probable than not.”
[¶ 22] We have used this analysis in other domestic relations cases, rather than a stricter approach more suitable for run-of-the-mill commercial cases that do not involve family status. See Collins v. Collins, 495 N.W.2d 293, 296 (N.D.1993)(order denying income withholding not moot “when an obligor quits his job or leaves to evade income withholding for child support” because “this order would improperly impede withholding from his income to enforce support for his child” if obligor returned to North Dakota); Johnson v. Johnson, 527 N.W.2d 663, 667 (N.D.1995)(not moot when “[a]n obligor who refuses to comply with a court order of support ..., forces the obligee to incur the costs of [more] litigation, [through] the obligor’s decision, when faced with an order to show cause, to pay the arrearage in an effort to purge the contempt”). In Johnson, id., we agreed “the question is capable of repetition, yet will otherwise evade review, and we conclude that it is not moot.” For like reasons, we should do so in this case.
[¶ 23] The mere existence of an unreviewed order forcing grandchildren to travel to an unfamiliar grandfather’s distant home for visitation is an invitation to do it again. Re-litigation of another motion will duplicate legal expense and risk more loss of time from work and additional inconvenience for this single parent of modest means who is pitted against a well-to-do adversary. More importantly, until the scope of forced visitation with their unfamiliar grandfather is judicially defined, these children will face continued *216uncertainty. See Jordana v. Corley, 220 N.W.2d 515, 524 (N.D.1974)(“... the status of children should be quickly fixed and, thereafter, little disturbed”)(Judge Vogel, concurring specially, quoting Jacobs v. Jacobs, 216 N.W.2d 312 (Iowa 1974)); Mansukhani v. Pailing, 318 N.W.2d 748, 756 (N.D.1982)(reeommending the trial court not entertain any new petition for change of custody or visitation, except for an emergency, “[t]o avoid detrimental consequences to the children resulting from continuous litigation over their custody”). Without review here, the resulting uncertainty cannot be- healthy for these children.
[¶ 24] Courts should be very cautious and deferential about interfering with reasonable parental choices or imposing financial costs and time constraints on a parent to enable grandparent visitation. Peterson v. Peterson, 1997 ND 14, ¶ 26, 559 N.W.2d 826. Grandparents are often better situated to travel to see their grandchildren where the children live. Id. at ¶¶27 and 28, 559 N.W.2d 826. Similar considerations should be a part of the mootness analysis to assess the reasonable expectation of repetition. The majority’s suggestion that the mother would be entitled, in the event of repetition, “to timely appeal and [to] file for stay under Rule 8, NDRAppP, and Rule 62, NDRCivP,” does not dispel concerns about the costs, inconveniences, and uncertainties of repetition for this parent and her children.
[¶ 25] Anthony’s brief to this court adds another reason why repetition can be expected:
Even if this particular appeal is deemed moot, [Anthony] asks the Court to make a determination as the appeal has effectively canceled plans for a summer 1997 visitation. The District Court has refused to hear a motion for summertime visitation pending resolution of this appeal. If this Court does not make a determination, every time the District Court grants a visitation, [Robin] could appeal the decision, effectively blocking it.
Because both sides expect repetition, the expectations are quite reasonable. Because the effects of repetition reinforce the need for review, we should review and decide this case.
[¶ 26] In my opinion, this order for forced grandparent visitation is clearly erroneous when it compels seven and eight-year-olds to travel more than 1,300 miles to visit a virtual stranger, alone and without the protective presence of their responsible parent during the visit. As the majority opinion hints broadly, the trial court, as an afterthought and without examining her position about it on the record, compelled this mother to travel with the children and, at her own expense, to stay separately nearby during the visit.
[¶ 27] The trial court compelled this distant visitation despite important reasons against such an intrusive injunction: (1) the girls barely knew their grandfather, and did not know the other relatives he proposed they meet; (2) Anthony did not ask or consult the girls or their mother about the visitation; (3) the girls had not flown before and were anxious about doing so; and (4) the girls had not slept overnight with anyone other than their maternal grandparents, not even with friends. Robin also questioned the possibility of the girls being left unsupervised with their abusive father during the visit. A therapist, who has counseled the girls for four years for problems resulting from abuse by their father, testified she did not believe it was in the children’s best interests to travel across the country to visit complete strangers. Courts should avoid imposing such anxieties, intrusions, and uncertainties on a family unit whenever possible. In my opinion, the trial court’s order is both factually and legally erroneous.
[¶ 28] The trial court decided this motion before and without the guidance of our opinion in Peterson v. Peterson, 1997 ND 14, 559 N.W.2d 826. The parties here, however, each tried to employ that opinion in then-briefs to this court. I believe Peterson clearly calls for a reversal here.
[¶ 29] What we said in Peterson should prevail upon remand of this case, where the father has lost most of his parental choices for improper parental conduct, and where the mother remains virtually the sole responsible parent. I would paraphrase and apply Peterson thus:
*217In applying NDCC 14-09-05.1 to these circumstances, the court must carefully consider [the mother’s] constitutional right[] as [these children’s responsible] parent[] to raise [them] as [she] reasonably see[s] fit. The court ordered [grandparent] visitation[ ] imposed on this family [unit], if any, must not unduly interfere with [her] reasonable parental choices. The lower court must cautiously apply the statute, bearing in mind that a statute must be construed in harmony with the constitution[al right of the responsible parent] to avoid constitutional infirmities.
See Peterson, ¶ 26, 559 N.W.2d 826. Like the mother in Peterson, this mother represented to the trial court, and to this court as well, that she is “not opposed to further grandparent visits in Devils Lake, but [she is] opposed [to a] visitation in the state of New York.” Perhaps, through a pattern of visits by the grandfather with these grandchildren in their locale, rather than in his distant, strange, and unfamiliar setting without their mother’s protective presence, this grandfather could eventually establish the kind of family relationship and trust that would enable his grandchildren to visit him voluntarily, rather than through the compulsion of a court injunction.
[¶ 30] Because I am convinced this case is not moot and was wrongly decided by the trial court, I respectfully dissent.
[¶ 31] MARING, J., concurs.

. Anthony represented to us:
Due to the logistical problems created by the necessity to change airline tickets in the short amount of time prior to the scheduled visitation and the holiday season, Anthony Sposato was not able to exercise the planned visitation from December 28, 1996 to January 3, 1997.