Court Opinion

ID: 9670626
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 03:23:38.404975+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:05.719537
License: Public Domain

HENDERSON, Justice
(concurring in part and dissenting in part).
I concur on a reversal of property division and the award of trial attorney fees. Because the trial court did not properly take into consideration Mother’s unfitness as a parent, I respectfully dissent to awarding custody of these two girls unto her and, therefore, cannot agree with awarding the federal income tax dependant exemptions to mother.
It appears that the trial court abused its discretion because the temporal, mental and moral welfare required that they be placed in a stable and secure environment. In Interest of A.D., 416 N.W.2d 264, 268 (S.D.1987). They were not. Simply put, the mother could not provide a stable and secure environment. Id. She has been in and out of alcohol abuse programs, but her continued alcohol abuse shows treatment has failed. The trial court also failed to consider mother’s depression and attempted suicide. Mother’s own mother and brother volunteered unto the trial court that the children would be “better off” with the father. Due to alcohol abuse and instability, mother had *910three different automobile accidents. Brother testified that father, not mother, was the primary caretaker. Brother also testified mother was intoxicated on Christmas Eve of 1991; and when she drove that night, she endangered the girls by having them in the automobile with her. When mother was awarded primary custody, she apparently was unemployed. Furthermore, a Home Study ordered by the trial court under Williams v. Williams, 425 N.W.2d 890 (S.D.1988), recommended that the father have physical custody, but said study was rejected.
Mother permitted her boyfriend to live in the house with her and the two girls, thus exposing the two impressionable daughters to highly improper conduct. Although ordered by the trial court to refrain from having an “unrelated man to be in the mother’s home between the hours of 8:00 p.m. and 10:00 a.m., when the children are present,” the male lover admitted that he had abandoned his own residence and had been residing with the mother and her minor children since the beginning of May, 1992, up until and including the time of trial. He was drawing unemployment at the time of the trial and personally testified that he had been convicted of two DUI charges.
Despite this factual backdrop, mother was awarded custody of these two girls. Exposing these girls to this relationship was contrary to their “moral welfare.” In this special writer’s opinion, this award of custody constitutes a clear abuse of discretion. Anderson v. Anderson, 472 N.W.2d 519 (S.D.1991).
Father has been steadily employed in the same job for 14 years. Dr. Battista-Turbak, who performed the Home Study, recommended that the father have physical custody of the children. This same expert indicated that mother was untruthful about her boyfriend living in the house. The trial court also ignored the recommendation of Dr. El-win Unruh who performed psychological examinations of the parties and the children.
Notwithstanding this weighty evidence that mother has a serious problem with alcohol abuse and is generally an unfit parent, the trial court awarded her physical custody of the girls. Some two months after said custody order, the two girls witnessed her passed out on the floor of their home. She was again admitted to a facility for in-patient treatment for alcohol abuse and lost her catering job. Under oath, she denied alcohol abuse, however, this evidence speaks contrary to her denial. A witness, Michele Christensen, testified the children would call her and ask for supper because they “could not wake Mommy up.” Past actions of a parent speak louder than do the promises to improve in the future. Matter of S.D., 402 N.W.2d 346 (S.D.1987).
Mommy was passed out from alcohol consumption. Mommy gets custody! These children should not be subjected to this type of conduct and abuse. Father met the burden of demonstrating that the mother’s conduct had a harmful effect on the children under Isaak v. Isaak, 278 N.W.2d 445 (S.D.1979). There being an abuse of discretion under the best interests of the child statute, namely SDCL 30-27-19, I would reverse. Lindley v. Lindley, 401 N.W.2d 732, 735 (S.D.1987). Sympathy cannot be a base for a correct civil judgment. Justice should be a search for the truth and, before us, truth was ignored.