Court Opinion

ID: 9516818
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-06 23:53:06.907245+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:39:23.696872
License: Public Domain

HENDERSON, Justice
(concurring).
Appellant Stone’s proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law are found at pages 28-34 of the settled record. Per Conclusion of Law 3 thereof, appellant Stone concedes that both parents are fit and proper persons to have the care, custody, and control of infant Christy. Conclusions of Law 4 and 5 thereof reflect a request for primary custody in the mother, appellant, with Conclusion of Law 6 advocating a child custody sharing arrangement. As I read appellant Stone’s brief, I am struck with this language:
In order to assure that the child will continue to enjoy the benefits of the love and care of both parents the Court should not vest total legal authority in one parent. Rather joint legal custody would encourage collaboration in the orderly discharge of parental duties with the Court retaining jurisdiction to be able to modify the decree in the event of interference or obstructive tactics on the part of either parent seeking his or her own convenience at the expense of the best interest of the child. Re: Marriage of Bolin, 336 N.W.2d 441 (Iowa 1983).
Therefore, the advocacy for primary custody in the proposed conclusions of law are out of sync with the legal base as I have incorporated above (ie., vesting joint legal custody). As I would theorize a situation which could eventualize in other cases, there might well be either primary legal custody or joint legal custody and still a custody sharing arrangement might exist.
Lastly, I wish to mention that the judgment appends, as Exhibit A, a most detailed recitation of the child custody sharing arrangement for the year 1987. The Honorable Circuit Judge Heck appears to have adopted, literally, the child custody sharing arrangement dates as proposed by appellant mother on page 34 of the settled record, same being Exhibit A attached to appellant mother’s proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law. Surely, then, the extensive child custody arrangement adopted by the court must be satisfactory with appellant mother.