Court Opinion

ID: 9702390
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 23:09:53.871039+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:10:52.262190
License: Public Domain

*143N. J. Kaufman
(concurring). While I concur in Judge D. E. Holbrook, Jr’s, opinion, I wish to add a word in response to the dissent.
"A judge agonizes more about reaching the right result in a contested custody issue than about any other type of decision he renders.”1
Plainly enough, all the potentialities envisaged by this realization are embodied in this case. Con-cededly, the questions presented on appeal by such cases are difficult. On the one hand, this Court should scrupulously avoid scuttling the clear statutory mandate contained in MCLA 722.28; MSA 25.312(8)2, which, of course, limits our appellate function, by reshaping custody orders based upon our own particular brand of appellate justice. On the other hand, to countenance a clearly improper result by casually affixing the label "no abuse of discretion” is to abdicate our judicial responsibility of determining the child’s best interests and, in effect, amounts to no more than taking the easy way out. What is clear, then, is that this Court must examine each case closely based upon the context of circumstances developed below with a clear recognition of both of these propositions. Doing so, I must affirm.
Experience amply attests that the trial judge’s interview with the child is, at best, a difficult method of garnering truthful information. A particular instance will illustrate my thought.
To begin with, let us suppose we have a child of *144the tender age of six, as we do here, appearing in the court room. The child is undoubtedly dressed in his best attire, the parent having custody at the time, to enhance his or her standing with the trial judge, will see to that. Almost invariably the child has been enticed by each parent in the hope that he will speak favorably towards them to the judge. It is inevitable that upon entering the judge’s chambers the pressure of the entire situation causes great trepidation in the child.
Faced with this situation, the task of the trial judge is twofold. He must first allay the justifiable fears of the child while, at the same time, he attempts to gain a true reflection of the child’s preference. The usual response of a trial judge to this situation is to inform the child that all that is said to him in chambers will be held strictly in confidence. The trial judge may well justify his course of action on two grounds: (1) as noted above, to gain both the child’s confidence and a truthful expression of his preference, and (2) not out of solicitude for the jilted parent’s ego but, rather, to protect the fragile emotional psyche of a six-year-old child who, after disclosure, might have difficulty facing the rejected parent and still, lest we forget, will quite possibly be living with this parent or at some juncture might return to the custody of that parent.
This illustration is offered not because it suggests the appropriate response by this Court in all instances but, instead, to show that the importance and extreme delicacy of this type of situation is, generally, best left to the discretion of the trial judge who is dealing directly with the parties and the child. Were the rule otherwise, I think it clear from the illustration above that a trial judge might well attempt to avoid the conversation with the child.
*145The difficulty in labeling this course of conduct reversible error is particularly true in the present case. Here, the parties stipulated to the in camera conversation between the trial judge and the child. The stipulation also provided that neither the plaintiff nor her counsel would be in attendance during the interview. Moreover, neither party objected to the trial judge’s failure to disclose the contents of the discussion; nor has the plaintiff even raised this issue on appeal. Under these circumstances, where the failure to disclose could well be in the child’s best interest, I can hardly call this reversible error.
Furthermore, I fail to perceive any reason for disclosure where it would not cause reversal of the trial judge’s decision. The case was so close that even were the child’s preference the mother, I would not conclude that the trial judge’s decision was against the great weight of the evidence.
Lastly, I wish to reflect on several of the comments made in the dissent on the evidence. I must, again, emphasize that the previously cited statute makes it clear that it is not our function to cast a roving judicial eye to discover evidence to support our particular position. We must deal with the record as presented, not with the record as we would like it to read. I am of the view that the comments made by the trial judge were justified and supported by ample evidence on the record. Accordingly, I concur in Judge D. E. Holbrook Jr.’s opinion.
D. E. Holbrook, Jr., P. J., concurred in the concurring opinion.

 Fritts vKrugh, 354 Mich 97, 101; 92 NW2d 604 (1958).

 MCLA 722.28; MSA 25.312(8) reads:
"Sec. 8. To expedite the resolution of a child custody dispute by prompt and final adjudication, all orders and judgments of the circuit court shall be affirmed on appeal unless the trial judge made findings of fact against the great weight of evidence or committed a palpable abuse of discretion or a clear legal error on a major issue.”