Court Opinion

ID: 9594401
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 00:29:43.554043+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T14:59:10.298086
License: Public Domain

LEVINE, Justice,
concurring specially.
I write specially to address a troublesome incongruity in our case law. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes said, “A word is not a crystal, transparent and unchanged; it is the skin of a living thought and may vary greatly in color and content according to its circumstances and the time in which it is used.” Towne v. Eisner, 245 U.S. 418, 425, 38 S.Ct. 158, 159, 62 L.Ed. 372 (1918). Language is a pliable, flexible tool that we use to communicate. A slip of the pen may result in an unintentional slip of the meaning we intend to attribute to a word or phrase or sentence. I believe this phenomenon explains the dissonance in our expression, over the years, of the legal principles at stake in change-of-custody cases.
In order to warrant modification of a decree to change custody, there must be a significant change of circumstances that requires the change of custody in the best interests of the child. Cross v. Cross, 374 N.W.2d 346 (N.D.1985); Olson v. Olson, 361 N.W.2d 249 (N.D.1985). It is not every significant change in circumstances that warrants a change in custody. It is only that significant change in circumstances that necessitates, to foster the child’s best interests, a change in custody. See Orke v. Olson, 411 N.W.2d 97 (N.D.1987); Miller v. Miller, 305 N.W.2d 666 (N.D.1981). In order to require or necessitate a custody transfer, the significant change of circumstances must weigh against the best interests of the child. Id.
But, the language used in some of our cases and cited by the majority, that we analyze whether a change in custody will *470“serve” or “foster” the best interests of the child, is misleading and inaccurate. There are many significant changes in life that may do just that but nonetheless do not justify changing custody. E.g., a remarriage resulting in an exemplary stepparent or greater financial resources or a rehabilitated noncustodial parent, ad infini-tum. While a change of custody in any of these substantial change-of-circumstance examples may truly benefit the child, it would not be required or necessary for the best interests of the child because it would not outweigh the benefit to the child of maintaining the continuity of the care, guidance and nurture provided by the custodial parent. The stability of the custodial parent-child relationship is the key to any change-of-custody analysis. See Miller v. Miller, supra. That stability is the critical factor in the best-interests equation. Okre v. Olson, supra; see Lapp v. Lapp, 293 N.W.2d 121 (N.D.1980). Whether the change of circumstances requires that there be a change of custody must be answered in the context of the recognized overriding benefit in maintaining the stability and continuity of the custodial parent-child relationship and not by looking at the particular change and whether it will “foster” the best interests of the child.
During oral argument, the argument was posed that any significant change of circumstances entitles the court to change the custody of the child, if that change would be “in the best interests” of the child. But that is not the justification under our law for a change of custody. Were it so, any motion for modification when there was a significant change of circumstances, would entitle the fact finder to retry the original custody placement. That would be inconsistent with and unauthorized by our modification jurisprudence.
I agree that the trial court’s order denying the motion to modify is not clearly erroneous. I, therefore, concur in the decision of the majority affirming the judgment.
MESCHKE, J., concurs.