Court Opinion

ID: 9513810
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-06 22:40:49.045903+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:06:02.985266
License: Public Domain

KAPSNER, Justice,
dissenting.
[¶ 27] I respectfully dissent. The majority ignores the accepted meaning of the term “prima facie” used in N.D.C.C. § 14-09-06.6(4), thereby changing the legal standard by which this Court reviews whether a custody hearing must be held. The majority bases its determination on Minnesota precedent which makes it a matter of discretion whether to hold such a hearing. However, Minnesota precedent is not applicable. Nowhere in the Minnesota statute governing custody modifications, Minn.Stat. Ann. § 518.18 (West 2004), is the term “prima facie” used. Although there are similarities between N.D.C.C. § 14-09-06.6 and Minn.Stat. Ann. § 518.18, I do not assume that our legislature engaged in a meaningless act when it added the concept of establishing a prima facie case to our statute. Bickel v. Jackson, 530 N.W.2d 318, 320 (N.D.1995) (“There is a presumption the legislature acts with purpose and does not perform idle acts”).
[¶ 28] Subsection 4 of N.D.C.C. § 14-09-06.6, which is unlike the Minnesota statute, provides:
A party seeking modification of a custody order shall serve and file moving papers and supporting affidavits and shall give notice to the other party to the proceeding who may serve and file a response and opposing affidavits. The court shall consider the motion on briefs and without oral argument or evidentia-ry hearing and shall deny the motion unless the court finds the moving party has established a prima facie case justifying a modification. If a prima facie case is established, the court shall set a date for an evidentiary hearing.
Prima facie is a defined legal term:
A prima facie case does not require facts which, if proved, would mandate a change of custody as a matter of law. A prima facie case only requires facts which, if proved at an evidentiary hearing, would support a change of custody that could be affirmed if appealed. See Volz[ v. Peterson], 2003 ND 139, ¶ 8, 667 N.W.2d 637. A prima facie case is only “enough evidence to allow the fact-trier to infer the fact at issue and rule in the party’s favor.” Black’s Law Dictionary 1209 (7th ed.1999). It is a bare minimum. The affidavits Koble presented establish a prima facie case that would *329support, though not necessarily require, custody modification, if the allegations were ultimately proven. The trial court erred with regard to the allegations Ro-ble presented of child preference, frustration of visitation, and physical and emotional endangerment when it found Koble’s allegations were insufficient to support modification, even if uneontra-dicted.
Tank v. Tank, 2004 ND 15, ¶ 12, 673 N.W.2d 622 (footnote omitted).
[¶ 29] Whether a prima facie case has been made is a matter of law. O’Neill v. O’Neill, 2000 ND 200, ¶ 8, 619 N.W.2d 855; Quarne v. Quarne, 1999 ND 188, ¶ 12, 601 N.W.2d 256. See generally Helbling v. Helbling, 541 N.W.2d 443 (N.D.1995).
[¶ 30] The allegations of the mother’s affidavit in support of her motion to change custody include the following:
10. I have talked with Jim about doctors, dentist, eye doctors, as far as setting up [the child’s] appointments. He fails to set up any of them and after I remind him two or three times, he asks me to just take care of it.
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12. [The child] has a heart murmur and Jim didn’t even show up at [the child’s] echocardiogram because he said he forgot. He had dropped [the child] off with me that morning and I reminded him, but he still did not attend.
13. [The child] was complaining that his tooth was hurting and I asked Jim to set up an appointment, this was in February. After a couple of months and a few reminders, Jim told me to set it up since I would be taking [the child] to it. He stated that there really was no need for [the child] to go because they are just baby teeth and are going to fall out anyway. I tried to set up the appointment with my dentist of twenty-eight years and found out that they wouldn’t see [the child] until Jim paid off his own bill that was outstanding. The dentist office agreed to set [the child] and I up on a separate account from Jim and I would be ultimately responsible to pay the bill, in full at the time of the appointment, which I agreed to do. I asked Jim if he would help me pay it and he said that he had no money, even though he bought [the child] a 3-wheeler a few weeks prior. I called [the child’s] grandma and asked if I could borrow the money and she agreed. She was reimbursed as soon as the insurance company reimbursed me. The dentist has stated that [the child] will be seeing an orthodontist by the time he is eight.
14.Besides [the child’s] bad teeth he failed his eye test in school. Jim didn’t take [the child] in for a follow up eye exam so I took [the child] in and got everything done. End result, [the child] had to get glasses. I paid for everything that my insurance wouldn’t cover, which is the case for all of [the child’s] medical bills. [The child] has a lazy eye and the doctor said that since he’s so young we could probably correct his eye with exercises that he’s supposed to do every night for ten minutes. [The child] never does his eye exercises at his dads. He says that they never have enough time and his dad told him he wouldn’t go blind if he doesn’t do them.
[¶ 31] We have said allegations of neglect of the health needs of the child is an *330assertion of a prima facie case. Lanners v. Johnson, 2003 ND 61, ¶ 12, 659 N.W.2d 864. The allegations made by the mother in this case are specific and she is competent to make most of them. I would hold that a prima facie case has been made requiring custody to be examined under N.D.C.C. § 14-09-06.6 and a hearing to be conducted to determine whether those allegations will be supported or refuted by the evidence introduced at that hearing.
[¶ 32] Because allegations supporting a prima facie case are rather easy to make, the practice of making unsubstantiated allegations would defeat the purpose of the statute which is to reduce the number of unsettling motions to modify custody. To counteract that potential, the statute on attorney fees for making unsubstantiated allegations should be used by the trial courts whenever it appears parties have subverted the process by this means. Allegations of harm that prove to be unfounded subject the parent making the allegations to court costs and attorney fees. N.D.C.C. § 14-09-06.5; Sweeney v. Sweeney, 2002 ND 206, ¶ 18, 654 N.W.2d 407.
[¶ 33] It is improper for this Court to ignore the plain words of the statute by changing what is a matter of law, the prima facie case, into a matter of discretion:
The legislature has provided that before there is a hearing on change of custody, the petitioner must present affidavits establishing a prima facie case justifying a modification. N.D.C.C. § 14-09-06.6(4). “Prima facie evidence” or “prima facie case” are legal terms with well-established meanings. See Black’s Law Dictionary 579 & 1209 (7th ed.1999). The North Dakota Century Code itself specifies how it is to be interpreted. N.D.C.C. tit. 1. The Code specifies that words are to be understood in their ordinary sense unless a contrary meaning plainly appears. N.D.C.C. § 1-02-02. The Code specifies that there is no common law (judge-made law) when the law is declared by statute. N.D.C.C. § 1-01-06. Here the majority interprets prima facie evidence in a way contrary to the ordinarily understood meaning of the term, and the majority substitutes its judge-made law for the enactment of the legislature.
Tank v. Tank, 2004 ND 15, ¶ 52, 673 N.W.2d 622 (Sandstrom, J., dissenting).
[¶ 34] Changing the prima facie showing, which is a question of law, required by statute, to a matter of discretion is a change that, if it is to be made, should come from the legislature. Therefore, I dissent.
[¶ 35] CAROL RONNING KAPSNER