Court Opinion

ID: 9507949
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-06 21:26:37.47394+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:07:26.103144
License: Public Domain

MR. JUSTICE SHEA,
specially concurring:
I join in the majority opinion but add that I do not understand how or why the trial court managed to ignore the statute that is so clear on the issue before us. Section 40-5-124, MCA, quoted in full in the main opinion, declares:
“. . . The determination or enforcement of a duty of support owed to one obligee is unaffected by any interferrence [sic] by another obligee with rights of custody or visitation granted by a court.”
This statute is crystal clear, and yet the trial court ignored it.
The court may have had some reason for choosing to ignore this statute, but if that is so, that reason is not set forth in the record. Where the action of a trial judge is so manifestly in violation of a statute, I believe the trial court at least should have set forth an explanation in the record why the choice was made to ignore the statute.