Court Opinion

ID: 9701576
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 22:25:35.971451+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:21:25.410441
License: Public Domain

Bristow, D.J.,
concurring in part and dissenting in part. I concur with the majority opinion regarding the defendant’s first and fourth claims of error.
I respectfully dissent, however, from the majority opinion regarding the defendant’s second claim of error. As noted by the majority, limitations placed on a parent’s visitation rights are a matter for the trial court’s discretion, to be exercised in the best interests of the child. This standard, however, should have been further enunciated by the majority in order to clarify the relationship between the trial court’s discretion and the use of moralistic values noted by the majority. Conditions placed upon a parent’s visitation rights should be imposed solely on the basis of the child’s best interests. Although such a determination may involve factors entailing moralistic values, special conditions should be imposed only when exposure to certain conduct will injuriously affect the child.
*418The standard for determining the right to and the extent of visitation privileges is the welfare of the child. Special conditions placed upon this right, such as those imposed by the trial court below, are proper only when they are required in order to prevent deleterious effects on the child. Such conditions may not be imposed based solely upon a court’s moralistic judgment of the parent’s conduct, but must be based upon an express finding of injury to the child. The conclusory finding by the trial court, that exposure to the defendant’s living arrangement would not be in the best interests of the children, is not sufficient in the absence of specific findings of fact to support such a conclusion.
As to the defendant’s third claim of error, I must also dissent. Because of the speculative nature of the disposition of the home, the trial court has not properly exercised its discretion. 15 V.S.A. § 751 provides that the court shall:
decree such disposition of the property owned by the parties separately, jointly, or by the entirety, as shall appear just and equitable, having regard to the respective merits of the parties, to the condition in which they shall be left by such divorce, [and] to the party through whom the property was acquired ....
Because of the uncertain value of the future appreciation of the home, it was improper for the trial court to make a property division based upon present value, coupled with a specified interest rate. Although this Court has noted that the division of marital property does not lend itself to a precise mathematical formula, Sweeney v. Sweeney, 136 Vt. 199, 200, 388 A.2d 388, 389 (1978), an attempt must be made to dispose of the property in a “just and equitable” manner. 15 V.S.A. §' 751. By employing a mathematical formula, the majority has in effect made the division of the equity in the home subject to unforeseeable variables. The discretion of the trial court in determining a just and equitable division of property has been replaced by the variables of the marketplace. Such a result is improper, and contrary to the intent of 15 V.S.A. § 751.