Faellaci v. Faellaci
Decision Date | 03 February 2012 |
Docket Number | 2100752 |
Parties | Julia W. Faellaci v. Jared S. Faellaci |
Court | Alabama Court of Civil Appeals |
Notice: This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the advance sheets of Southern Reporter. Readers are requested to notify the Reporter of Decisions, Alabama Appellate Courts, 300 Dexter Avenue, Montgomery, Alabama 36104-3741 ((334) 229-0649), of any typographical or other errors, in order that corrections may be made before the opinion is printed in Southern Reporter.
Appeal from Houston Circuit Court
Julia W. Faellaci appeals from a judgment entered by the Houston Circuit Court.
This is the second time these parties have appearedbefore this court. See Faellaci v. Faellaci, 67 So. 3d 923 (Ala. Civ. App. 2011). We set forth the pertinent background and procedural history of this case in Faellaci, which we quote below, and we use the terms defined therein as defined terms in this opinion.:
67 So. 3d at 923-25 (footnote omitted).
We dismissed the wife's appeal as having been taken from a nonfinal judgment because the trial court's postjudgment order "left something more for the trial court to do, i.e., to enter an order making a determination of the amount of interest owed by the husband [on his child-support arrearage] and setting forth the husband's modified visitation rights as agreed upon by the parties." Id. at 926.
After this court issued a certificate of judgment in Faellaci, the trial court conducted a hearing on April 19, 2011, and entered a judgment on May 3, 2011, that adopted the parties' agreement regarding visitation issues and that held that the husband was to pay the wife $100,000 within 120 days to "clear up and any all claims of unpaid child support." The trial court further held that no interest should be awarded on the child-support arrearage because the child-support provision in the separation agreement was "so ambiguous ... that the [c]ourt cannot determine a date for the accrual of interest on the child-support arrearage." All other relief requested by the parties was denied, and the wife filed a timely notice of appeal.
The wife raises five issues for this court's review on appeal: (1) whether there was insufficient evidence to support a change in legal custody of the children; (2) whether there was insufficient evidence to support a modification of the husband's child-support obligation; (3) whether there was insufficient evidence to support the trial court's determination as to the husband's child-support arrearage; (4)whether the trial court erred by failing to award the wife interest on the child-support arrearage; and (5) whether the trial court considered inadmissible evidence relating to a mediation agreement when rendering its judgment.
The trial court conducted an ore tenus proceeding over two days; the first hearing was held in August 2009 and the second hearing was held in October 2009. During the August 2009 hearing, the wife stated that she did not want the husband to have joint legal custody of the children because the husband had "given her sole custody" in the separation agreement and she did not see any reason why that custodial arrangement should change. The husband stated that he wanted joint legal custody of the children so that he would not be in a "vacuum" without a voice when it came to making decisions concerning the children.
The record indicates that the wife had unilaterally decided to withdraw the parties' oldest child from private school and to begin homeschooling the child because she thought he was struggling in school. However, the record indicates that the child had received As and Bs in his first-and second-grade years in school before the wife began homeschooling him. According to the wife, she had informed the husband of her decision, but the husband testified that he was not given an opportunity to provide input. The husband testified that he had asked the wife dozens of times who the children's doctors were and that the wife had not responded to his requests for that information until approximately one month before trial. The wife denied that the husband had repeatedly asked her who the children's doctors were, and she testified that she had responded to the husband's first request for that information via a text message. The record also indicates that the wife had taken one of the children to the hospital to have tests done after the child exhibited unusual behavior and that she had not informed the husband that she had taken the child to the hospital to have the tests performed. According to the husband, the wife never shared medical information regarding the children with him, and, he said, he found out that one of the children had been in the hospital from the children.
The wife stated that she does not allow the husband to e-mail her and that she only occasionally answers his telephonecalls. The husband stated that the wife turns off her home telephone, that she rarely answers her cellular telephone, that her voicemail is always full so that he cannot leave messages, and that they only way he can communicate with the wife is through text messaging. The wife presented evidence indicating that the husband is difficult to communicate with and that he had bombarded her with e-mails before she stopped using the e-mail account to which the husband had access.
The wife testified that, after the parties went to mediation, the husband thought that he had joint legal custody of the...
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