Court Opinion

ID: 9542205
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 16:31:56.940142+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:07:08.503428
License: Public Domain

Robert W. Hansen, J.
(dissenting). The trial court found that the best interests of the children would be served by transfer of custody from their mother, now living in Colorado, to their father, still living in Wisconsin. Such trial court determination, as the majority states, is not to be upset in the absence of a clear abuse of discretion. However, only proper and relevant factors are to be considered in determining what custody placement order would best serve the welfare and well-being of the children involved. The financial income, the professional status and the community standing of the two ex-spouses are not such proper factors. Here the trial court obviously gave heavy weight to such income, such status and such standing. In its memorandum opinion, the trial court stated:
“. . . children should be able to enjoy and bask in the delights of their father’s reputation as a competent and leading attorney of the City of Madison and the State of Wisconsin. . . . Fortunately in this matter, Mr. Fritschler has a good reputation and there is no reason that the Court sees, why that reputation should not continue, and the Court is of the opinion that there is no reason why those two (2) children should not become a part of that reputation . . . .”
Earlier in the same opinion, the trial court added to status and standing as an attorney, the matter of the substantial income earned in his profession by the father, stating:
*293“The Defendant is a very successful attorney — is well respected in the community as evidenced by his substantial income over a long period of time. . . .”
Wherever the father is a successful attorney and the mother is a full-time homemaker, giving weight to these considerations puts a butcher’s thumb on the scales. Of course, the barrister father will have a greater income, professional status and standing in the community than the mother who stayed home to raise the children. By such scales, so weighted, an F. Lee Bailey or Melvin Belli would be assured custody of children should lawyer-husband and homemaker-wife go separate ways. The best interests of a child are not to be determined by a comparison of income tax returns or resort to a Martin-dale directory. Success, status or standing in any one of what in Italy are termed the le grande professions does not make one a preferred custodian of minor children. One’s law school diploma and license to practice law, or the financial success or community prestige one attains in this profession are not relevant or proper foundation stones for a change of custody order.
So the writer would reverse and remand for a new hearing to consider the alternatives as to custody placement of the two children.
I am authorized to state that Mr. Justice Horace W. Wilkie joins in this dissent.