Court Opinion

ID: 9762069
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 02:09:43.088733+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:29.753946
License: Public Domain

Tom Glaze, Justice, concurring. I concur. Ark; Code Ann. § 9-10-113 (1977) provides for the award of custody of an illegitimate child in two instances. One, when a child is born to an unmarried woman, legal custody of that child is presumptively given to the woman unless a proper court places that custody with another party. See § 9-10-113(a). This legal presumption recognizes that in many cases, if not most, the biological father is absent and is unavailable to care for the child. The provision does authorize a competent court to place custody in another party if the circumstances warrant and it is shown custody should not be in the mother. In instance two, a biological father, after he has established paternity in a competent court, may seek custody of his child if (1) he shows he is a fit parent, (2) he has provided care, supervision, protection, and financial support for the child, and (3) it is in the child’s best interests to award the father custody. See § 9-10-113(c)(l)(2) and (3). This second procedure merely recognizes the equal protection right a biological father has in establishing a parental and custodial relationship with his child. In this case, the biological father, Bryant Norwood, did not initially file suit to establish paternity of the parties’ child. Instead, the mother, Sherri Robinson, filed her complaint against Bryant, and after she established paternity by showing Bryant to be the child’s father, the court, by order dated February 2, 1989, awarded Bryant visitation rights and ordered him to pay child support in the sum of $160.00 per month. In that proceeding, Sherri gained legal custody of the parties’ child under § 9-10-113(a). Bryant never appealed that court order, nor had he sought custody of the parties’ child in that initial proceeding. Clearly, like in divorce proceedings involving children, both Bryant and Sherri had the opportunity to litigate the custody issue. Bryant simply showed no interest in doing so — at least until Sherri sought enforcement of child support arrearages against Bryant. Approximately two years and nine months after Sherri established paternity in Bryant, Bryant sought custody of the parties’ child in the same proceeding Sherri initiated to enforce payment of child support payments. In doing so, Bryant claims the trial judge erred in requiring him to show a material change in circumstances since the time the parties’ child was placed in Sherri’s custody on February 2, 1989. He argues that he only need show the three criteria in § 9-10-113(c)(l)(2) and (3) which are set out hereinabove. Bryant, of course, had his opportunity not only to establish paternity, but also to seek custody of the parties’ child. He did neither. The February 2, 1989 decree was a final order, and like divorce decrees involving child support payments, custody and visitation rights, the court retained jurisdiction only to enforce those rights or to modify them upon a showing of a material change in circumstances. Ark. Code Ann. § 9-10-109(a) (1987). Although the three criteria contained in § 9-10-113(c)(l)(2) and (3) are considerations a trial judge will consider when a change of custody is sought, certainly the judge is not limited to those factors. Again, those three factors are ones the trial court considers when a biological father establishes paternity and seeks custody, and here he failed to do either until after an order became final vesting custody in Sherri. For these reasons and the others related in the majority opinion showing Bryant failed to show a material change of circumstances; I would affirm.