Adams v. Adams

• Decision Date: 12 May 1982
• Citation: 416 So.2d 428
• Parties: Mickey ADAMS v. Twyla ADAMS. Civ. 3069.
• Court: Alabama Court of Civil Appeals

Page 428

416 So.2d 428

Mickey ADAMS v. Twyla ADAMS.

Civ. 3069.

Court of Civil Appeals of Alabama.

May 12, 1982.

Rehearing Denied June 16, 1982.

Larry R. Grissett of Prestwood, Prestwood, Andalusia, for appellant.

Allen Edward Cook and C. Stan Davis, Andalusia, for appellee.

EDWARD N. SCRUGGS, Retired Circuit Judge.

This case concerns the modification of a child custody judgment from the father to the mother.

The parties were divorced in September 1977 with Mr. Adams, the father, being granted custody of their son, Jason. Before the divorce the mother had fled to Texas with the boy to escape threats from the father. In March 1978 the father went to Texas and "snatched" the child from his tricycle and has retained Jason's custody since then in Alabama. The mother promptly returned to reside in this state and sought custody of the child, but her modification petition was denied in July 1978. Her present complaint was filed in 1981 and the contested hearing was orally tried before the circuit court in December 1981. The judgment of the trial court ascertained that it was in the best interest of Jason that his mother be awarded his custody and it was decreed accordingly. The father appeals and argues that it was not in the child's best interest that a change in custody be effected and that the mother failed to show such a material change in the circumstances as to authorize an alteration of the son's custody.

In capsule form, tendencies of some of the evidence were as follows: the boy is now seven years of age. When he visited with his mother, he evidently did not desire to return to his father's home but indicated that he wanted to remain with his mother. Jason is "real tiny," weighing only thirty-six pounds. The boy has a poor appetite and really consumes only one meal a day. The mother has taken him to physicians who found nothing physically wrong with the boy. He was in the second grade and was an above average student. A transfer to a different school would be required upon a change of custody. His teacher stated that his schoolwork could be affected by a change of homes.

The father has remarried and now has a well-paying job on oil rigs situated off the coast of Louisiana. He works for seven days and is off for the next seven days. During his off days he assists his father in the trucking business. His present wife, who has a good reputation, is also employed. Mr. Adams drinks alcoholic beverages in the evenings when he is not working and indicated that Jason may drink beer if he desires when he is old enough. There was evidence that he is a good parent to Jason.

In 1977 and 1979 the father paid two fines for reckless driving, each of the charges having been reduced from the offense of driving while intoxicated. In 1981 he pleaded guilty to and was fined in Florida for the misdemeanors of disorderly intoxication and resisting arrest without violence. Felony offenses which arose out of the same circumstances according to the father were instituted against him in 1981, one case in Florida for cultivating and possessing marijuana and the other case in Alabama for possession of marijuana. In August 1981 he pleaded guilty to the Alabama felony charge. His Alabama home and the curtilage thereof, where he, his present wife and Jason resided, had been searched by law enforcement officials who found and seized 2.4 pounds of green marijuana which was being dried in a utility house immediately to the rear of his house trailer. He was sentenced in that case to five years in the penitentiary and, additionally, was fined $4,900. The sentence was suspended and he was placed upon unsupervised probation for five years. Shortly thereafter, the Florida drug charge against him was dismissed. He admitted that he...