Court Opinion

ID: 9726357
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 12:45:58.740856+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:25:26.395368
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE STEIGMANN, specially concurring: Although I agree with the majority opinion, I write specially to provide additional clarification regarding respondent’s argument that at the July 2002 hearing on the petition for modification, the trial court erred by admitting evidence of events that occurred prior to the November 2000 dissolution judgment. Specifically, respondent contends that the court improperly considered Dr. Scott’s custody evaluation report because that report was before the court prior to its November 2000 order granting petitioner custody of the children. This contention is wrong. In November 2000, when the trial court granted petitioner custody of the children, the court acted pursuant to the parties’ marital settlement agreement. Thus, the child-custody issue was never litigated, and the court’s role was essentially limited to accepting the parties’ agreement with minimal, if any, scrutiny thereof. In In re Marriage of Weaver, 228 Ill. App. 3d 609, 616, 592 N.E.2d 643, 648 (1992), this court addressed a claim on an appeal from a custody modification proceeding that collateral estoppel applied, and we wrote the following: “Collateral estoppel prevents a party from raising an issue in a later proceeding where that issue was actually or necessarily decided ***. *** Generally, a court’s order regarding child custody is res judicata as to facts which existed at the time the order was entered. *** Courts should be cautious in determining when to apply res judicata in child custody cases. This doctrine should not be strictly applied to bar evidence when the most important consideration is the welfare of a child.” In In re Marriage of Kleiboeker, 262 Ill. App. 3d 644, 634 N.E.2d 1329 (1994), the appellate court addressed a situation very similar to the present case, in which the parties stipulated to the petitioner’s having custody at the time the dissolution judgment was entered in 1987. In 1992, when the respondent sought to modify custody, she presented evidence of petitioner’s inappropriate and violent behavior that occurred in 1986. The trial court granted respondent’s petition to modify, and petitioner appealed, arguing, in part, that the court should not have considered the evidence of his 1986 conduct. The appellate court affirmed, writing as follows: “The court originally based the custody award to the father on the stipulation of the parties, without taking evidence as to the circumstances of the parents or their ability to take care of the children. Given these circumstances, section 610 [of the Act] allows the court to consider facts existing at the time of the earlier decree but not then known to the court. [Citations.] We find no error in the trial court’s consideration of facts which were unknown to the court at the time of entry of the previous custody order in making its determination under section 610.” (Emphases added.) Kleiboeker, 262 Ill. App. 3d at 649, 634 N.E.2d at 1332. As in Kleiboeker, in this case, the Scott report was essentially “unknown” to the trial court when it entered its November 2000 custody order, pursuant to the marital settlement agreement. That is, although the report existed, it was not something the court considered when it approved the parties’ marital settlement agreement. Once the child custody matter was actually brought before the court, the Scott report (which was more than 40 pages long and contained information on the children’s best interest) clearly became probative, and the court properly considered it. Indeed, under these circumstances and given the important task before the court, not only could the court consider the report, it would have committed error if it had not done so.