Court Opinion

ID: 9526384
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 03:16:30.336052+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:19:39.258884
License: Public Domain

OXBERGER, Chief Judge
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent. The following words of the supreme court in In re Marriage of Mikelson, 299 N.W.2d 670, 673 (Iowa 1980), apply equally in this case:
(The noncustodial parent’s) principal deficiencies appear to be his lack of support of (the custodial parent’s) rights as custodial parent and his use of visitation as a device to wean the children away from their mother. (He) has treated custody as an open question even though it was settled in the decree terminating the marriage. This attitude has contributed to the hostility and mutual distrust which exists between (the parties). It has also placed the children in the midst of a tug-of-war for their loyalties. We have disapproved such conduct before (citations omitted). We now do so again.
I would do so again in this case. I would restore the custody of these children with the mother.