Court Opinion

ID: 9719643
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 07:57:45.335177+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:08.628783
License: Public Domain

BAKER, Chief Judge,
dissenting in part.
I respectfully dissent from the majority’s decision to affirm the portion of the trial court’s order awarding joint legal custody to the parties herein. Although we are reluctant to reverse a trial court’s grant of joint legal custody, we will do so when the evidence indicates “a clear abuse of trial court discretion in that the joint custody award constitutes an imposition of an intolerable situation upon two persons who have made child rearing a battleground.” Aylward v. Aylward, 592 N.E.2d 1247, 1251 (Ind.Ct.App.1992). That both parents may be suitable and capable legal custodians of their children does not end the inquiry:
[ejven two parents who are exceptional on an individual basis when it comes to raising their children should not be granted, or allowed to maintain, ji at legal custody over the children if it h is been demonstrated ... that those parents cannot worst and communicate together to raise tue children.
*979Carmichael v. Siegel, 754 N.E.2d 619, 636 (Ind.Ct.App.2001). To award joint legal custody to parents who are unable to cooperate “is tantamount to the proverbial folly of cutting the baby in half in order to effect a fair distribution of the child to competing parents.” Aylward, 592 N.E.2d at 1252.
Here, notwithstanding Mother’s and Father’s respective acknowledgement of “the others love for their children and the fitness of each parent to care for the children,” Op. p. 974, they are unable to agree on fundamental issues such as their child’s middle name, their children’s education, and where the children should live. Given their inability to communicate about and compromise on such basic decisions, I do not believe that joint legal custody will be workable or in the children’s best interests. See also Aylward, 592 N.E.2d at 1251 (observing that we are reluctant to affirm a trial court’s order of joint legal custody when one of the parties objects thereto). Therefore, I would reverse the trial court in that regard and remand with instructions to make a new custody determination. In all other respects, I concur with the majority opinion.