P.D.V-G. v. B.A.V-G.

• Decision Date: 07 May 2021
• Docket Number: Case No. 2D20-1178
• Parties: P.D.V-G., Appellant, v. B.A.V-G., Appellee.
• Court: Florida District Court of Appeals

P.D.V-G., Appellant,
v.
B.A.V-G., Appellee.

Case No. 2D20-1178

DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL OF FLORIDA SECOND DISTRICT

May 7, 2021

NOT FINAL UNTIL TIME EXPIRES TO FILE REHEARING MOTION AND, IF FILED, DETERMINED

Appeal from the Circuit Court for Charlotte County; Mary Evans, Judge.

Mira Staggers White of Mira Staggers White, Attorney at Law, P.A., Punta Gorda, for Appellant.

B.A.V-G., pro se.

MORRIS, Judge.

P.D.V-G., the former husband, appeals a supplemental final judgment for modification, which granted exceptions filed by B.A.V-G., the former wife, to the general magistrate's report and recommendations and denied the former husband's supplemental petition for modification. We reverse because the former husband demonstrated a substantial change in circumstances necessary for modification, as found by the general magistrate.

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The parties were married and have two children together, born in June 2010 and January 2012. The parties divorced in August 2015, and the final judgment of dissolution provided for equal timesharing and shared parental responsibility. Around the time of the divorce, the former wife began a romantic relationship with her boyfriend, and the two of them had a child together in November 2016. In August 2018, the former husband filed a supplemental petition for modification of the final judgment, seeking a change in parental responsibility and timesharing based on incidents involving the former wife and her boyfriend, the former wife's harassment of the former husband, and the former wife's interference with the former husband's visitation and shared parental responsibility.

After an evidentiary hearing on August 8, 2019, the general magistrate found that there had been a substantial change in circumstances based on the former wife's behaviors, her relationship with her boyfriend, and the removal of the children from the former wife's "temporary care" during a dependency case that had been opened in 2017. The magistrate also made detailed findings regarding the best interests of the children. Regarding domestic violence, the magistrate found that "[t]here is a significant history of domestic violence and police activity" between the former wife and her boyfriend and that the former wife significantly minimalized her history of domestic violence with her boyfriend. The magistrate also found that the boyfriend, who serves as a parental figure, has a "significant history of substance and alcohol abuse," although noting that he was doing well with his sobriety. The magistrate recommended that the former husband's request for sole parental responsibility be denied but that the former husband should be designated as the ultimate decision-

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