Martin v. Macmahan

Citation2021 ME 62
Decision Date14 December 2021
Docket NumberSag-21-18
PartiesMARK R. MARTIN v. MARYLOU E. MACMAHAN
CourtSupreme Judicial Court of Maine (US)

2021 ME 62

MARK R. MARTIN
v.
MARYLOU E. MACMAHAN

No. Sag-21-18

Supreme Court of Maine

December 14, 2021


Argued: July 13, 2021

E. Anne Carton, Esq., Brunswick, and Matthew C. Garascia, Esq. (orally), Auburn, for appellant Mark R. Martin

John F. Zink, Esq. (orally), Freeport, for appellees Dawn and James Ostrander

Vanessa A. Bartlett, Esq., Law Offices of Vanessa A. Bartlett, Portland, for appellee Marylou E. MacMahan

Panel: MEAD, GORMAN, JABAR, HUMPHREY, HORTON, and CONNORS, JJ.

HORTON, J.

[¶1] Mark R. Martin appeals from judgments entered by the District Court (West Bath, Raimondi, J.) establishing Dawn and James Ostrander as de facto parents of two biological children of Martin and Marylou E. MacMahan; allocating parental rights and responsibilities and child support among Martin, MacMahan, and the Ostranders; and amending an existing divorce judgment between Martin and MacMahan.[1] Martin argues that that the court misapplied the legal standards governing de facto parentage and made findings that were not supported by evidence in the record, including by adopting a magistrates findings in an interim order. We affirm the judgment establishing de facto parentage, parental rights and responsibilities, and child support, but we vacate

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the judgment amending the divorce judgment because it is inconsistent with the judgment establishing parental rights and responsibilities, and we remand so that the inconsistency can be corrected.

I. BACKGROUND

[¶2] The following facts and procedure are drawn from the procedural record and findings made by the court that are supported by evidence admitted at the final hearing.[2] See Kilborn v. Carey, 2016 ME 78, ¶¶ 3, 16, 140 A.3d 461. Martin and MacMahan are the biological parents of twins born in March 2014. When the children were born, Martin and MacMahan lived in Arrowsic and did not have a vehicle. Dawn Ostrander, MacMahans lifelong friend, drove MacMahan to prenatal care appointments, drove the children home from the hospital after they were born, and drove MacMahan and the children to subsequent checkups. The Ostranders helped care for the children and supplied the necessities of care, such as diapers, wipes, formula, and clothing.

[¶3] When the children were about four months old, Martin moved the family to Kansas, believing-incorrectly-that he would have housing and employment there. In Kansas, after staying a week with Martins mother and

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grandmother, the family moved to a motel and then started living out of a car. While they were still in the motel, Martin began shoplifting DVDs to make money. He was arrested in December 2014 and spent about a week in jail. After his release from jail, his criminal case was resolved and he was placed on probation until October 2015. He has generally remained in Kansas since then.

[¶4] When Martin went to jail, MacMahan and the children had no money, housing, or means of transportation. Desperate, MacMahan called Dawn Ostrander, who drove to Kansas, brought MacMahan and the children back to Maine, and helped MacMahan find a place to live. The Ostranders resumed providing MacMahan with the necessities of care for the children, including diapers, wipes, formula, clothing, bassinets, and car seats.

[¶5] At first, the children stayed with the Ostranders on weekends and for some overnights during the week. By April 2016, the children were living primarily with the Ostranders, who provided for all aspects of their care. Martin did not provide any support for the children during this time. On several occasions between 2015 and early 2017, MacMahan, who was homeless at times, told Martin that she needed help and asked him to come get the children. He responded that he could not. In April 2016, when the children had just turned two years old, the Ostranders began providing full-time care for them at

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the request of a community organization concerned about MacMahans lack of stable housing, and, with limited exceptions, the children have resided with the Ostranders full-time ever since. Dawn Ostrander has enrolled both children in speech therapy and has transported them to those sessions for several years.

[¶6] In June 2017, Martin came to Maine, believing that he had an agreement with MacMahan that he would take custody of the children for some period of time. When he arrived, MacMahan did not permit him to see the children. Martin initiated a divorce action against MacMahan and then returned to Kansas. Martin returned to Maine for a visit around Christmas in 2017; it was the first time he had seen the children since being arrested in Kansas in December 2014.

[¶7] In an agreed-upon divorce judgment issued in January 2018, a Family Law Magistrate (Kidman, M.) awarded shared parental rights to MacMahan and Martin, granted primary residence to MacMahan, and set a contact schedule that included a two-month visit with Martin in Kansas during the summer of 2018. Meanwhile, although the children were spending some weekends at MacMahans home, they were otherwise living with the Ostranders. In April 2018, the Ostranders obtained a protection from abuse

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order against MacMahan on behalf of the children.[3] When Martin found out about the protection order, [4] he contacted the Ostranders, gave them temporary legal authority over the children, and told them he would come to get the children in June. Martin then moved to modify the divorce judgment, seeking primary residence and sole parental rights.

[¶8] In June 2018, after the Ostranders filed petitions seeking guardianship of the children, a Family Law Magistrate (Adamson, M.) held a combined interim evidentiary hearing on Martins motion to modify the divorce judgment and the Ostranders guardianship petitions. The magistrate then issued an interim order in which she made extensive findings and set forth detailed arrangements for the childrens visit with Martin in Kansas, including that they were "to be returned to [Maine] according to the [divorce] [j]udgment ... on August 17, 2018"[5] and that they were to be allowed to have contact with the Ostranders while they were with Martin. The magistrate declined to

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otherwise modify the divorce judgment and issued no decision regarding the Ostranders guardianship petitions.[6]

[¶9] Martin did not return the children to Maine in August 2018. He also did not comply with the interim orders requirement that he allow the Ostranders to have contact with the children three times per week. In late October 2018, after the Ostranders notified the court that they had not been allowed to speak with the children for eight days, the court (Dobson, J.) held a hearing and then authorized the Ostranders to pick up the children in Kansas as soon as possible.

[¶10] The Ostranders drove to Kansas to pick up the children on November 1, 2018; when they arrived, Martin told them they could not take the children until noon the next day. They slept in their car that night before returning to Maine with the children. The children have resided with the Ostranders ever since.

[¶11] Martin saw the children for Christmas in 2018 and then for two weeks in Kansas in the summer of 2019. He speaks with the children on the

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phone and over video chat. A court order would have permitted a visit in Kansas during the summer of 2020, but restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic made that difficult. Martin suggested, in the alternative, that he would come to Maine for a week-long visit, but after planning to do so, he canceled the arrangements.

[¶12] Since 2016, the Ostranders have received a total of $100 in financial support from Martin and $85 in financial support from MacMahan, and they have received no state or federal financial aid in caring for the children. According to the childrens teachers, the children are doing well socially and academically, and the Ostranders are active and concerned caretakers. The teachers have not had any contact with either Martin or MacMahan. Martin agreed, during his testimony, that he never reached out to the childrens teachers or health care providers because he "relied on [the Ostranders] to keep [him] up to date on those things" and because he was "relying on them to [exercise] the parental responsibilities for [his] children."

[¶13] After returning to Maine with the children in November 2018, the Ostranders filed a complaint and affidavit seeking a determination of de facto parentage, parental rights and responsibilities, and child support. With the agreement of the parties, the court found in May 2019 that the Ostranders had

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demonstrated standing to proceed with the de facto parentage action. See 19-AM.R.S. § 1891(2) (2021); see also, e.g., Libby v. Estabrook, 2020 ME 71, ¶¶ 13-14, 234 A.3d 197.

[¶14] The court (Raimondi, J.) held a final, consolidated hearing on the Ostranders guardianship petitions, their de facto parentage complaint, and Martins motion to modify the divorce judgment. Over the course of two days in September 2020, it heard testimony from, among other people, Martin, MacMahan, the Ostranders, and the guardian ad litem. The court then issued an order addressing both the Ostranders parentage complaint and Martins motion to modify the divorce judgment.[7] The order incorporated extensive findings, which the court set forth in a separate document. In the middle of a section of that document titled "FACTUAL HISTORY," the court referred to findings expressed by the magistrate in the June 2018 interim order and stated: "After consideration of the evidence presented to this court at the hearing in this matter, the court adopts those findings." The court then restated, verbatim, many of the findings expressed in the June 2018 interim order.

[¶15] In another section of the courts order titled "LEGAL ANALYSIS," the court made additional findings specifically related to the elements of the

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Ostranders de facto parentage claim, see 19-A...

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