September 28, 2023

Tennessee youngster custody case abstract in divorce.

Evon Kay Creger v. Daniel William Creger

The mom on this Rutherford County, Tennessee, case filed for divorce in 2019.  The events have been married in 2005 and had two daughters.  She requested to be named major residential guardian.  She later sought an order for cover.

The daddy filed a solution wherein he requested to be named major residential guardian.

After many pretrial disputes, the case lastly went to trial in 2022.  The trial court docket made findings as to the daddy’s habits, similar to that he had chased the mom and youngsters down the freeway together with his automobile, and that he had violated pretrial orders by texting the youngsters.  It additionally discovered that he had violated court docket orders by shopping for a automobile, withdrawing $100,000 in marital funds, and interfering with an ordered sale of property.

The trial court docket dominated that the mom must be named major residential guardian, with the daddy having 55 days of parenting time.  It additionally discovered that he was voluntarily unemployed and set his incomes capability at $92,000, leading to a baby help obligation of $1005 monthly.

The daddy then appealed to the Tennessee Courtroom of Appeals.  After addressing property points, the appeals court docket turned to the problem of custody.

The appeals court docket, just like the decrease court docket, seemed on the statutory elements, and the way they utilized to the case.  Each courts positioned a lot weight on the testimony of counselors who had labored with the daddy and the youngsters.  In response to one in every of them, the daddy had made disparaging remarks to the youngsters concerning the mom.  The counselor additionally testified that the youngsters felt fearful and threatened by the daddy.    The opposite counselor agreed, and famous that the daddy’s bond with the youngsters was very weak.

The mom had additionally testified that for a few years, the daddy was disengaged from the youngsters, appeared depressed and offended, and destroyed property in the home.

After reviewing the proof, the Courtroom of Appeals agreed that the decrease court docket had acted inside its discretion in making use of the statutory elements.  Subsequently, it affirmed the decrease court docket’s ruling.

After addressing some evidentiary points, the Courtroom of Appeals went on to award the mom her legal professional’s charges for the attraction, and remanded the case for functions of computing the quantity.

No. M2022-00558-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. Mar. 16, 2023).

See authentic opinion for actual language.  Authorized citations omitted.

To study extra, see Little one Custody Legal guidelines in Tennessee and our video, How is youngster custody decided in Tennessee?

See additionally Tennessee Parenting Plans and Child Support Worksheets: Building a Constructive Future for Your Family that includes examples of parenting plans and youngster help worksheets from actual instances accessible on Amazon.com.