Court Opinion

ID: 9793667
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 02:51:20.882549+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:06:31.906350
License: Public Domain

ZIMMERMAN, Justice
(concurring separately):
I join the majority in affirming the trial court. However, I cannot join the majority’s expression of the law governing changes of custody. In recent years, beginning with Hogge v. Hogge, 649 P.2d 51 (Utah 1982), we have struggled to articulate standards that must be met before changes of custody can be ordered. The resulting case law makes it clear that custody changes are the exception and that they are governed by strict standards that are different from those by which initial custody awards are made.1 The majority opinion acknowledges this line of authority. But it does not analyze the change of custody issue, and it confuses the matter with its reference to the proposition that a trial court has broad discretion “in the area of child custody” and that it will be reversed “only when the action taken ... is so unjust as to constitute an abuse of discretion ...,” a proposition it supports with a citation to the language of sections 30-3-5(1) and 30-3-10 of the Code and Jorgensen v. Jorgensen, 599 P.2d 510 (Utah 1979). This casual and, I think, erroneous treatment of the proper legal standards can only create problems. See Moody v. Moody, 715 P.2d 507, 510 (Utah 1986) (Zimmerman, J., concurring in the result).
The proper standard for reviewing a change of custody is set out in the Hogge line of cases, not in Jorgensen.2 Hogge and its progeny do not vest in trial courts any broad discretion when the reopening of a child custody award is at issue. Rather, they require that the trial court first carefully determine whether a change of circumstances has occurred since the initial award that justifies reexamining the placement. Unless this threshold question is answered in the affirmative, the trial court never reaches the question of which of the two contending parties would be the better custodial parent. Our cases “set a very high standard for reopening custodial or-ders....” Moody v. Moody, 715 P.2d at 510 (Zimmerman, J., concurring); see also Becker v. Becker, 694 P.2d 608, 610 (Utah 1984); Hogge v. Hogge, 649 P.2d at 54. In my view, the majority passes too lightly over the central issue of this appeal— whether the trial court properly found a change of circumstances. In so doing, it may unintentionally give comfort to those who would have trial courts meddle in custody awards upon the slightest pretext, generally to the detriment of the children involved. See Shioji v. Shioji, 712 P.2d *1323197, 202 (Utah 1985) (Zimmerman, J., dissenting).
The change of circumstances question here is a close one. Most of the facts recited in the majority opinion could not support a finding of a change of circumstances. They reflect little more than the not uncommon physical mobility and economic misfortune that befall many in our society. In my view, only the fact of the mother leaving the child with the father for most of the time after the initial custodial award is pertinent to the standard set out in Becker: “The asserted change must ... have some material relationship to and substantial effect on parenting ability [of the custodial parent] or the functioning of the presently existing custodial relationship.” 694 P.2d at 610; accord Shioji v. Shioji, 712 P.2d at 200. The mother’s failure to take active custody of the child after custody was awarded to her does have a “material relationship to and substantial effect on ... the functioning of the ... custodial relationship” set up by the initial custody order.
The trial court’s initial custody order necessarily anticipated that the mother would assume physical custody of the child and that she would act to solidify the bond that should exist between the custodial parent and the child and to provide the stability in caregiving that is one of the principal purposes of a one-party custodial arrangement. See Moody v. Moody, 715 P.2d at 510 (Zimmerman, J., concurring); Fontenot v. Fontenot, 714 P.2d at 1133; Shioji v. Shioji, 712 P.2d at 202 (Zimmerman, J., dissenting). Instead, the trial court found that she left the child with the father almost all the time. This probably had the effect of creating stability in the child’s life and of bonding the child with the primary caregiver, but not the one contemplated by the court’s order. I conclude that the mother’s actions have resulted in a change of circumstances not contemplated by the court at the time of the initial award and that this change meets the requirements set forth in Becker.
Once the trial court properly found a change of circumstances, it was entitled to weigh all the evidence in determining the placement that would be in the best interests of the child. U.C.A., 1953, § 30-3-10 (Repl.Vol. 3C, 1984); Williams v. Williams, 655 P.2d 652, 653 (Utah 1982); Hogge v. Hogge, 649 P.2d at 54. A factor that should be given heavy weight in such an analysis is the child’s interest in maintaining a stable placement. Moody v. Moody, 715 P.2d at 510 (Zimmerman, J., concurring); Shioji v. Shioji, 712 P.2d at 202 (Zimmerman, J., dissenting). The court’s order had the effect of leaving the child in his existing placement. Absent a strong showing that this was not the best arrangement for the child, I am not persuaded that the trial court abused its discretion.
DURHAM, J., concurs in the concurring opinion of ZIMMERMAN, J.

. See Hogge v. Hogge, 649 P.2d 51 (Utah 1982); Tuckey v. Tuckey, 649 P.2d 88 (Utah 1982); Martinez v. Martinez, 652 P.2d 934 (Utah 1982); Williams v. Williams, 655 P.2d 652 (Utah 1982); Mitchell v. Mitchell, 668 P.2d 561 (Utah 1983); Becker v. Becker, 694 P.2d 608 (Utah 1984); Mineer v. Mineer, 706 P.2d 1060 (Utah 1985); Pennington v. Pennington, 711 P.2d 254 (Utah 1985); Shioji v. Shioji, 712 P.2d 197 (Utah 1985); Moody v. Moody, 715 P.2d 507 (Utah 1985); Fontenot v. Fontenot, 714 P.2d 1131 (Utah 1986).

. See cases cited supra note 1. In fact, Jorgensen is inapposite since it involves a challenge to an initial custody award, not a change of custody order. It may be that the majority, in citing sections 30-3-5(1) and 30-3-10 and Jorgensen, intends only to refer to the standard we apply to review orders changing custody after a change of circumstances has been found. (See infra p. 1321.) If so, its statement of that standard is confusing, but not incorrect.