Court Opinion

ID: 9721750
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 09:07:51.252639+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:28.444718
License: Public Domain

PRESIDING JUSTICE STOUDER, dissenting: I believe this case should be remanded to the trial court for reconsideration in light of the decision in In re Marriage of Thompson (1983), 96 Ill. 2d 67, 449 N.E.2d 88. My colleagues recognize, as does the Thompson case, a perspective different from that applied in the prior case of Jarrett v. Jarrett (1979), 78 Ill. 2d 337, 400 N.E.2d 421, when misconduct of the custodial parent is an issue. The majority suggest that even under the perspective or standard of Thompson the trial court’s action ought to be affirmed. I do not think this is an appropriate process to be indulged in by a court of review since it would require us to weigh and evaluate the evidence in the first instance rather than reviewing such a determination by the trial court. The Thompson case having only been recently decided, the trial court did not have the benefit of its teachings and could not have weighed and evaluated the evidence in accord with its more flexible guidelines. It might well be, and I think we should not decide the issue as a matter of law, that the trial court might come to a different conclusion applying the Thompson rather than the rules of Jarrett which it did apply, and for that reason I respectfully dissent from the views of my colleagues.