Court Opinion

ID: 9769136
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 14:35:19.438098+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:30:55.781814
License: Public Domain

BURGESS, Justice,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. The majority sets out very compelling reasons to grant the grandparents’ motion to modify the conserva-torship of these two young children. Had *452the trial court done so, I would have joined in affirming such an action. However, the trial court, did not do so and that was a decision uniquely designed for trial courts. This is not a case where the evidence is so staggering that the trial court could have reached only one conclusion. Under the evidence, both sides were shown to have good and bad points, with the good points perhaps preponderating in favor of the grandparents.
Our job, as an appellate court, is not to simply reweigh the evidence and reverse if we would have reached a different conclusion. In custody matters, where personal observation and evaluation of the parties and their claims is so valuable, we should give great deference to the trial court’s judgment. See Doyle v. Doyle, 955 S.W.2d 478, 481-82 (Tex.App.—Austin 1997, no writ). This discretion is wisely vested in the trial judge because he faces the parties and the witnesses, observes their demeanor, views their personalities and senses the forces and powers which motivate them. Consequently, he is in a much better position than an appellate court to assess the needs of the child and to adjudge from personal observation which arrangement will serve the best interest of the child. Maixner v. Maixner, 641 S.W.2d 374, 376 (Tex.App.—Dallas 1982, no writ).
In addition to the ability of the trial judge to draw inferences from his observation of the parties and witnesses, he is at liberty to take judicial notice of prior proceedings before him. Id. at 376-77. We can presume that the trial court, in arriving at its decision, took judicial notice of the prior proceedings, although he was not asked to do so and did not formally announce that he had done so. There certainly may have been issues in pri- or proceedings that influenced the trial court in reaching his decision not to grant any modification. Based upon the evidence and the respective roles of the courts, I am unable to say the trial court’s denial of the motion to modify is arbitrary and unreasonable. I would affirm the judgment.