Court Opinion

ID: 9665067
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 00:38:25.974573+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:12.573733
License: Public Domain

LEIBSON, Justice,
dissenting.
Respectfully, I dissent.
The decision in this case will profoundly affect the future of countless children. The subject is how to interpret and apply KRS 403.270(4), which states:
“The court may grant joint custody to the child’s parents if it is in the best interest of the child.”
Under this statute, including subsection (4), the “best interest of the child” is not just another thing to be considered along with the sensibilities of the parents in awarding custody. It is not just the most important thing. It is the only thing.
The Majority Opinion states:
“In such cases, the court is called upon to decide who shall have what the parties often perceive as their most precious ‘possession.’ ”
Children are “precious” but not as their parents’ “possession,” and parents must not treat them as such. Social science data amassed since the advent of the joint custody experiment some 20 plus years ago studying the effects of joint custody awards demonstrates overwhelmingly that except for “those few, exceptionally mature adults who are able to set aside animosities in cooperating for the benefit of their children,” joint custody is not a problem solver, but a pernicious problem causer. J. Rainer Twiford, J.D., Ph.D., Joint Custody: A Blind Leap of Faith?, Behavioral Sciences & the Law, Vol. 4, No. 2, p. 157-68 (1986). The Appellant’s Brief cites numerous articles reviewing some of this social science data:
1) Wall Street Journal (July 15, 1991, p. Bl).
2) M. Sun, “1988 Review of Family Law: Clearing House Review,” p. 944 (January 1989).
3) T.W. Lowe, “Evaluating Parental Potential for Joint Custody,” 69 Mich. B.J. 140-43 (Fall 1990).
4) D. Post, “Arguments Against Joint Custody,” 4 Berkley Women’s Law Journal 316-25, (1989, 90).
5) McKinnon and Wallerstien, “Joint Custody and the Preschool Child,” 4 Behavioral Sciences and the Law 169 (1986).
6) Steinnman, Zemmelman and Knob-lauch, “A Study of Parents Who Sought Joint Custody Following Divorce: Who Reaches Agreement and Sustains Joint Custody and Who Returns to Court,” 24 Journal of American Academy of Child Psychiatry 554-62 (1985).
The Majority Opinion acknowledges the existence of this empirical data, and cites no data to the contrary. None is cited to us. Yet the Majority disregards its significance.
A report prepared in February 1983 by the Ad Hoe Committee on Family Dissolution of the Kentucky Psychological Association, entitled “Custody and Visitation Patterns in Children of Divorce,” sums up as follows:
“It should be recognized that joint custody is not a panacea. It requires that the parents have the emotional capacity and the psychological commitment to resolve their differences and engage in communication, cooperation, and compromise. Obviously, it cannot be imposed on a fighting couple as a way of resolving their dispute. It is also not for those who have not thought through its implications .... It should not be used as a ‘cop-out’ by the court to avoid the careful weighing of all of the variables determining the child’s best interests....”
The Trial Commissioner in this case was tuned in to reality. His findings, after a lengthy, video-taped hearing were as follows:
*772“... cooperation and communication between the parties is required for an award of joint custody.... In this case, it is obvious to the Court [Commissioner] that the parties cannot agree or cooperate to the extent necessary to accommodate a joint custody award.”
The trial court neither heard the evidence nor reviewed the tapes, but awarded joint custody contrary to this finding, stating it was the court’s “policy” to “grant joint custody of children whenever possible to do so,” and that “the national trend is for joint custody.” The trial court was mistaken as to “policy” and the present direction of the “national trend.” Neither reason suffices to support a finding in favor of joint custody in this case.
Obviously there are eases where, based on the evidence presented (not policy or trend), joint custody is an appropriate arrangement, and the custody statute makes it available for such cases. But the decision to award it should turn on individualized fact-finding, not inappropriate policy considerations. The Majority has concluded that the trial court could accept the Commissioner’s fact-finding, yet reach a contrary result as to whether joint custody rather than sole custody was appropriate. It is plainly mistaken. The question of the proper custodial arrangement is a fact question. It depends on what evidence was presented. The law allows custody placed only where the facts justify, and that can be decided only by the fact-finder. The trial court could not accept the facts found by the Commissioner as to the parents’ suitability to share custody, yet disregard his decision on the ultimate fact based on policy considerations. These policy considerations are not part of the law, and disregard the empirical data undermining their cogency.
Before awarding joint custody the trial court should be required to find that these parties are presently emotionally mature adults capable of cooperating and sharing in the decision-making involved in raising this child, not that “hopefully” they will become so. The final order of the trial court in this case is to the contrary:
“The Court recognizes that this has been another very bitter divorce in which the parties and their attorneys have hotly contested nearly every issue_ Hopefully, after this divorce is finalized, the parties, who are mature individuals and not teenagers, will cooperate with the give and take that is in the best interest of the child.” [Emphasis added.]
This is not good enough. Rather than finding what the record shows is in the best interest of the child, it evades the issue.
This was a 2-1 decision in the Court of Appeals. The Dissenting Opinion by Judge Huddleston embodies what the law should be:
“In considering a joint custody arrangement, it is imperative that the court determine whether the parties possess the maturity necessary to suppress their enmity toward one another when addressing issues affecting their child. Without an atmosphere allowing a cooperative exchange of ideas, the parties will tend to inflict their personal animosities on the child. The detrimental and destabilizing effect of a joint custodial arrangement between uncooperative parents is apparent.”
The trial court had the power to decide the facts de novo. But when the court utilized a Commissioner for preliminary fact-finding, CR 52.01 required that findings of fact made by the Commissioner not be set aside unless and until the court reviewed the evidence and reached a different conclusion. Fact-finding is a function of an opportunity to evaluate the evidence firsthand and assess the credibility of the witnesses. McNamee v. McNamee, Ky., 432 S.W.2d 816 (1968). In the present case the trial court did not evaluate the evidence firsthand, or even secondhand. He simply considered the exceptions filed by the parties and declined to follow the Domestic Commissioner’s custody finding, based on a policy which is not the law and is a misper-ception of the national trend.
The testimony in this case overflows with bitterness and recrimination between the parents, hostile charges and counter-accu*773sations. As Judge Huddleston summarized:
“In this case, the parties never lived together and established a foundation of mutual trust and cooperation. The record strongly suggests, as the Commissioner observed, that while both parties may be suitable custodians, they are unable to communicate and to cooperate in the raising of their son.”
At the least, this case should be remanded to the trial court with instructions for the trial court to determine the custody issue based on a review of the evidence firsthand.
In support of his preference for joint custody the trial court states, “[sjince joint custody can be modified it keeps both parents on their good behavior to avoid a change of custody.” This wishful thinking has its genesis in the Kentucky Court of Appeals’ decision in Benassi v. Havens, Ky.App., 710 S.W.2d 867 (1986), stating that a joint custody award is the legal equivalent of no custody: that custody can then be decided later without regard to the statutory constraints on change of custody.
In Benassi v. Havens, the Court of Appeals holds:
“It is our view that when joint custody is awarded under KRS 403.270(3) [now (4) ] and the parties subsequently disagree, neither KRS 403.340 nor KRS 403.350 applies.... As a practical matter, joint custody is no award at all when considering modification of the arrangement.” Id. at 869.
But a joint custody award is a child custody award under KRS 403.270, just the same as is a sole custody award under this same statute. A decree awarding joint custody does not provide a loophole to avoid the statutory mandate in KRS 403.340 and .350, covering modification of a custody decree. KRS 403.340(2) provides that unless the parties have agreed to the modification or the child has been integrated into the family of the petitioner with the consent of the custodian, the child’s custody shall not be changed absent 'proof:
“(c) The child’s present environment endangers seriously his physical, mental, moral, or emotional health, and the harm likely to be caused by a change of environment is outweighed by its advantages to him.”
In Quisenberry v. Quisenberry, Ky., 785 S.W.2d 485 (1990), our Court recognized that the policy behind the statute is to stabilize the child’s circumstances and stop further fighting over his custody unless the child is in serious physical, mental, moral or emotional danger. The best interest of the child, as well as the parents, is served by forcing quarreling parents to adapt to new circumstances, to accept the finality of the decree and their new arrangements, to live in the present. Children need to know where they stand, and to go forward from thére.
Significantly, Benassi offers no citation of authority, case or statute, for the “view” expressed: that joint custody is no award at all when considering modification of the arrangement. Nothing in subparagraph (4) of KRS 403.270 suggests that the General Assembly considered joint custody to be “no award at all.” There is no statutory mandate that the statutes on change of custody do not apply to an award of joint custody. But it is this view that change of custody barriers did not apply in joint custody cases that the trial judge gives as one of the reasons underlying his preference for a joint custody arrangement.
The decision in Benassi and in this case go against the grain of KRS 403.340-.350, as explained in Quisenberry. The purpose of the statutory barriers to modification in KRS 403.340 and .350 is to give children a stable environment in which to grow. That stability is no less important when there is joint custody than when one parent has sole custody.
The writer of this Dissent agrees wholeheartedly that it is desirable for a noncustodial parent to have as much continuing parental relationship with his child as possible. Between warring parents this can best be accomplished by providing full visitation rights to the noncustodial parent insofar as reasonably possible.
*774In all likelihood, the parent with liberal visitation who would disregard the relationship with his child because he has only visitation rights, rather than custodial rights, will fail to fulfill the child’s needs for emotional support in any event. If a parent is so immature and so hostile that a joint custody arrangement is necessary before he will provide his child with personal contact, financial and emotional support, his very attitude proves him unsuited to the task of carrying out a joint custody arrangement.
Benassi v. Havens manufactures joint custody into a vehicle permitting the trial court to postpone deciding the difficult custody question presented by quarreling parents. Without exception, the social science data amassed on this subject proves that the joint custody arrangement is a vehicle peculiarly unsuited to resolve quarreling over a child; indeed, it is counterproductive to this end. The worst interest of the child rather than the best interest of the child is served by fostering a continuing instability in the child’s custodial arrangements.
The evidence of post-decree proceedings in the present case illustrates the point. A month after the decree the parties were back in the trial court quarreling over what time of the day on every other Christmas Eve the appellee had to end his visits with the child. Parents who cannot resolve this simple difference on their own can hardly be expected to share jointly the responsibility to determine the child’s upbringing in matters of education, health care, religious training, and similar fundamental decisions.
Without giving the matter much thought, the Majority seems to have embraced the Court of Appeals’ decision in Benassi v. Havens. At least, one would assume so based on the following quote from the Majority Opinion:
“It should not be overlooked that to achieve such cooperation, the trial court may assist the parties by means of its contempt power and its power to modify custody in the event of a bad faith refusal of cooperation. Benassi v. Havens, Ky.App., 710 S.W.2d 867 (1986)[.]”
It is a serious mistake to adhere to Benassi when we have never considered its ramifications, much less whether it properly decides whether the statutes on change of custody apply.
Finally, the Majority Opinion criticizes the Court of Appeals’ Opinion on joint custody in Hardin v. Hardin, Ky.App., 711 S.W.2d 863 (1986), and states “we endorse many of the views expressed by the Court of Appeals in Chalupa v. Chalupa, Ky.App., 830 S.W.2d 391 (1992).” In Hardin, the Court of Appeals reversed a joint custody award rendered by the trial court because of the enmity and disagreement between the parents, stating “joint custody cannot be in the best interests of the children where the parents are not sufficiently understanding and mature enough to cooperate in such an arrangement. Petrilli’s Kentucky Family Law, § 26.86 (Supp. 1985); Revell & Slyn, Kentucky Divorce § 9.6 (1984)."
Chalupa had facts very similar to the present case and was decided by the same panel of Court of Appeals judges, and by the same split decision (Schroder and Stum-bo, JJ., approving joint custody, and Hud-dleston, J., dissenting). Chalupa stands for a proposition that this Court should never approve: that it is in the child’s best interest to require “a trial court to consider joint custody first, ... a preference for joint custody is in the best interest of the child, even in a bitter divorce....” The Chalupa majority, in a triumph of hope over experience, says that by such a decision “the court is encouraging the parents to cooperate with each other and to stay on their best behavior.”
The Chalupa decision is wrong, and we should disavow it. Our Majority Opinion states:
“While we stop short of endorsing the Chalupa preference for joint custody, i.e. ‘consider joint custody first,’ we endorse many of the views expressed therein.”
This rather vague disclaimer confuses rather than clarifies. While we state we “stop short of ... ‘consider joint custody first,’ ” by embracing as a realistic expectancy the *775“pie in the sky” philosophy expressed in Chalupa, the net result is to encourage trial courts to “consider joint custody first.” If this is the result, this case will be an unmitigated disaster for children in cases to come.
A recent article in the Wall Street Journal (July 15, 1991, p. 81) quoted by Judge Huddleston in his Court of Appeals Dissent in this case brings us up-to-date on the impact of joint custody. We quote, in part:
“Joint custody, once hailed as the ideal child-rearing arrangement for divorced couples, is coming under fire from psychologists, lawyers and embittered parents.
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Robert Mnookin, Director of the Stanford Center on Conflict and Mediation, which conducted a child-custody study of 1,100 families in California, says, ‘Where parents are fighting and remain locked in conflict, joint physical custody can be like carrying out King Solomon’s threat. A child can be torn apart psychologically.'
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... a study of 700 divorce cases in Cambridge by the Middlesex Divorce Research Group found that couples with joint legal custody were more than twice as likely to relitigate their child-care agreements as couples with sole custody.
Moreover, joint legal custody ‘makes no difference in terms of the amount of parents’ contact with their kids, the quality of communication between parents, or the rate of compliance with child-support payments,’ says Stanford’s Mr. Mnookin.
Researchers say joint custody hasn’t lived up to its promise because most parents haven’t embraced the concept willingly.”
Judge Huddleston has accepted what the social science studies have established, and applies it to this case. On the other hand, the Majority Opinion from the Court of Appeals and our Court, is more intuitive than objective.
I fear for the future. I fear for the children whom joint custody decrees will force to live in unstable relationships, subject to uncertain authority. I fear for the emotional damage to children who will be the noncombatant casualties in future courtroom battles.
For the benefit of the children who must bear the consequences of the problems that will be caused by this decision, I urge the General Assembly to take suitable steps. Joint custody should not be abolished as an available option, because there are cases where such a finding is appropriate. It is, however, only appropriate upon proof that both parents are presently emotionally mature and psychologically suited to the task of sharing custody cooperatively. Further, in order to provide the children of divorce a stable environment in which to grow, so far as it is humanly possible to do so, I urge the General Assembly to repair the barriers against casual change of custody established by KRS 403.340-.350, but breached by the decision of the Court of Appeals in Benassi v. Havens, supra, and by the language of this Opinion.