Kramer v. Kramer, 20778

• Decision Date: 15 May 1987
• Docket Number: No. 20778,20778
• Citation: 738 P.2d 624
• Parties: Angie KRAMER, aka Angie Balken, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Robert Michael KRAMER, Defendant and Appellant.
• Court: Utah Supreme Court

Page 624

738 P.2d 624

Angie KRAMER, aka Angie Balken, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Robert Michael KRAMER, Defendant and Appellant.

No. 20778.

Supreme Court of Utah.

May 15, 1987.

Rehearing Denied June 18, 1987.

Steven Kuhnhausen, Salt Lake City, for defendant and appellant.

David M. Swope, Salt Lake City, for plaintiff and respondent.

ZIMMERMAN, Justice:

Appellant Robert Kramer appeals from a denial of his petition to modify a child custody decree by granting him custody of his son. He claims that the trial court erred by refusing to consider the changes in his (the noncustodial parent's) circumstances in determining whether there had been a sufficient "change in circumstances" to warrant reconsidering the earlier custody award under Hogge v. Hogge, 649 P.2d 51 (Utah 1982). He also contends that the trial court erred in concluding that his ex-wife's circumstances, even considered alone, had not so changed as to satisfy Hogge and to warrant a reopening of the custody decree. We reject both arguments and affirm.

When Robert and Angie Kramer were divorced on May 12, 1982, they stipulated that custody of their minor child, Jason, could be awarded to Angie, the mother. In the findings of fact entered by the trial court in connection with the divorce decree, Angie was found to be a fit and proper person to be awarded custody. In November of 1983, Robert filed a petition for modification of the custody decree, claiming that substantial changes in both his and his former wife's circumstances justified reopening the custody decree and transferring custody of Jason to him. Robert Kramer offered uncontested evidence showing that since the original decree, he has obtained advanced degrees in psychology and is presently employed as the director of the Salt Lake County Artec Program, that he has a new home and substantially increased income, that he and his new wife have a new child, and that both his new wife and her two children from a previous marriage have formed good relationships with Jason. On the other hand, Robert Kramer alleged that his ex-wife's new husband beats her, that she is an alcoholic, that she suffers from a narcissistic personality, that she creates animosity between Jason and appellant, that she refused to obtain treatment for Jason's alleged speech defects, and that Jason is unwashed and unkempt when Robert comes to the home for visitation. Angie Kramer's evidence contradicted Robert's allegations about her in nearly every respect.

The trial court heard and weighed the evidence and conducted an in camera interview of Jason. It then determined that Robert had not carried his burden of proof showing a material change in Angie's circumstances. In so ruling, the district court issued a memorandum opinion in which it discussed quite cogently the test for reopening custody decrees established by Hogge and Becker v. Becker, 694 P.2d 608 (Utah 1984). The district court concluded that under the Hogge-Becker standard, a decree could not be opened unless there was a showing of a change in circumstances materially affecting the custodial parent's ability or fitness to care for the child and that in making such a determination, any change in the circumstances of the noncustodial parent were irrelevant.

On appeal, Robert claims that the trial court erred in refusing to consider changes in the noncustodial parent's situation when determining whether there had been a sufficient "change of circumstances" to warrant reconsidering the initial custody question. We disagree. Under Hogge and Becker, the trial court was correct in focusing only on changes in circumstances affecting the custodial parent in deciding whether to reopen the custody decree.

Hogge established a two-prong test for considering requests to change custody awards, imposing the burden of proof on the party seeking change of custody. Under the first prong, the party seeking modification must show that there has been a change in the circumstances upon which the original custody award was based which substantially and materially affects the custodial parent's parenting ability or the functioning of the custodial relationship and which justifies reopening the custody question. Once a substantial change of circumstances has been established, the petitioner must show under the second prong that the requested change in custody is in the best interests of the child. See Hogge v. Hogge, 649 P.2d at 53-54. ¹ The "change of circumstances" threshold is high to discourage frequent petitions for modification of custody decrees. The test was designed to "protect the custodial parent from harassment by repeated litigation and [to] protect the child from 'ping-pong' custody awards." Id. This policy has been adhered to and elaborated upon in our subsequent cases dealing with change of custody matters. ²

A central premise of our recent child custody cases is the view that stable custody arrangements are of critical importance to the child's proper development. See, e.g., Fontenot v. Fontenot, 714 P.2d 1131, 1132 (Utah 1986); Shioji v. Shioji, 712 P.2d 197, 203 (Utah 1985) (Zimmerman, J., dissenting); Becker v. Becker, 694 P.2d 608, 610 (Utah 1984); Hogge v. Hogge, 649 P.2d 51, 55 (Utah 1982); B. Hafen, The Constitutional Status of Marriage, Kinship, and Sexual Privacy--Balancing the Individual and Social Interests, 81 Mich.L.Rev. 463, 473-74 (1983). The two-part Hogge test is founded upon that premise. Hogge v. Hogge, 649 P.2d at 54. No matter how well intentioned, changes in custody can do more harm than good. See Hafen, supra, at 474. For this reason, when a trial court is asked to determine whether there has been a change of circumstances sufficient to warrant reopening a custody decree, ordinarily it must focus exclusively on the parenting ability of the custodial parent and the functioning of the established custodial relationship. This was recognized in Becker v. Becker, 694 P.2d 608, 610 (Utah 1984), where, in interpreting and applying Hogge, we held that the first step of the Hogge standard requires that "[t]he asserted change [in circumstances] ... have some material relationship to and substantial effect on parenting ability or the functioning of the presently existing custodial relationship." Id. at 610 (emphasis added). It is this language which the trial court in the present case quoted in its memorandum decision and relied upon in refusing to consider the changed circumstances of Robert Kramer, the noncustodial father.

Robert Kramer argues that the trial court's approach, although consistent with the language of Becker, is inconsistent with the facts in the earlier Hogge case, because there we held that a change in the circumstances of the noncustodial parent justified reopening the custody order. Hogge v. Hogge, 649 P.2d at 54-55. It is true that in Hogge, we affirmed a change of custody based upon a showing that at the time of the petition to reopen the custody question, the noncustodial mother had overcome emotional problems which emanated from the divorce and she was then able to provide a stable home for her children. However, those facts do not mean the trial court erred in the present case. In Hogge, the initial award of custody to the father was based primarily upon the mother's "emotional illness" which caused her to be temporarily incapable of caring for the children. Id. at 54. The award thus was subject to or apparently conditioned upon an improvement in her emotional circumstances. Id. The original award of Jason to his mother, Angie, in this case, was not conditioned upon any analogous consideration of Robert Kramer's temporary circumstances.

To appreciate fully the result in Hogge, it should be compared with Mineer v. Mineer 706 P.2d 1060 (Utah 1985). In Mineer, we rejected the mother's plea that evidence of her improved mental condition provided a basis for reexamining the original award of custody to the father. Our decision was based on the fact that her "emotional instability was not one of the reasons that [the father] was awarded custody in the original divorce decree," and such evidence therefore was irrelevant to a showing of changed circumstances. Id. at 1062.

In essence, on its facts, Hogge creates only a narrow exception to the general rule spelled out more fully in Becker--that ordinarily the change-of-circumstances prong of the Hogge test must focus only on the custodial parent. ³ Any other approach will only promote "ping-pong custody awards," precisely the evil Hogge was intended to eradicate. Hogge v. Hogge, 649 P.2d at 54. As Becker reiterated, "The rationale is that custody placements, once made, should be as stable as possible unless the factual basis for them has completely changed." Becker v. Becker, 694 P.2d at 610.

The narrow construction we place on Hogge is not an innovation or a change in our case law. Rather, it is consistent with the approach this Court implicitly has taken in applying the first prong of Hogge's change of custody test. Every case that has relied on the Hogge analysis in reviewing a ruling on a petition for a change of custody has been based exclusively or primarily on an evaluation of the custodial parent's circumstances. ⁴ In the usual case, the noncustodial parent's change of circumstances is relevant only to a determination of whether, under the second prong of the Hogge-Becker test, the best interests of the child warrant a shift in custody, an issue reached only after a change of custodial circumstances has been found and the custody issue has been reopened. ⁵

Robert Kramer's other argument on appeal is that the trial court abused its discretion in finding that alleged changes in the mother's circumstances did not satisfy the first prong of the Hogge-Becker test and did not warrant reopening the decree. It is the trial court's prerogative to hear and weigh the conflicting evidence and to make findings of fact. We will not upset such findings when they are supported by...