Pikula v. Pikula, C6-83-1393
| Decision Date | 29 May 1984 |
| Docket Number | No. C6-83-1393,C6-83-1393 |
| Citation | 349 N.W.2d 322 |
| Parties | Kelly Jo PIKULA, Appellant, v. Dana David PIKULA, Respondent. |
| Court | Minnesota Court of Appeals |
Syllabus by the Court
On the facts of this case, the trial court abused its discretion in awarding custody of the parties' two minor children to the husband.
Stephen C. Rathke, Brainerd, for appellant.
John H. Erickson, Brainerd, for respondent.
Heard, considered and decided by POPOVICH, C.J., and FORSBERG and RANDALL, JJ.
This appeal is taken from an order dated August 22, 1983, which amended the Findings of Fact issued in a dissolution between the parties and denied appellant's motion for a new trial. We reverse and remand.
The parties were married March 29, 1980, when appellant-mother was 17 and respondent-father was 20. The parties' two children are girls, Tiffany, age 4, and Tanisha, age 3. The dissolution trial was heard November 9 and 10, 1982. A court ordered custody evaluation, involving at least three social workers, recommended that custody of both daughters remain with the mother and that she undergo counselling, not to overcome "any deficit in her ability to parent, but rather as recognition that the role of the single parent is extremely demanding." Witnesses testifying at trial disputed the abilities of each parent. Both parties claimed the best interests of the two children lay with their having legal custody with visitation to the other. The trial court, by findings and conclusions, issued April 14, 1983, and amended August 22, 1983, granted custody of both children to respondent-father.
Whether the trial court properly granted custody of the parties' two children to respondent.
A trial court ruling on the issue of child custody has broad discretion to determine, with reference to Minn.Stat. § 518.17, the best interests of the children. Peterson v. Peterson, 308 Minn. 365, 242 N.W.2d 103 (1976). To ensure meaningful appellate review, the trial court must set forth the basis for its decision with particularity. Wallin v. Wallin, 290 Minn. 261, 187 N.W.2d 627 (1971). The court's decision will not be disturbed unless the record fails to support an award of custody.
The Legislature has specified the factors to be considered by the court when determining the best interests of the children:
(a) The wishes of the child's parent or parents as to his custody;
(b) The reasonable preference of the child, if the court deems the child to be of sufficient age to express preference;
(c) The interaction and interrelationship of the child with his parent or parents, his siblings, and any other person who may significantly affect the child's best interests;
(d) The child's adjustment to his home, school, and community;
(e) The length of time the child has lived in a stable, satisfactory environment and the desirability of maintaining continuity (f) The permanence, as a family unit, of the existing or proposed custodial home;
(g) The mental and physical health of all individuals involved;
(h) The capacity and disposition of the parties to give the child love, affection, and guidance, and to continue educating and raising the child in his culture and religion or creed, if any; and
(i) The child's cultural background.
The court shall not consider conduct of a proposed custodian that does not affect his relationship to the child.
In awarding custody to the respondent-father, the trial court made two key findings:
Finding 11. That there is a strong, stable, religious family group relationship within the Pikula family that has been developed, nurtured and cultivated over the years. It has stood like a bedrock through the depression years and post-war years of plenty and permissiveness. This environment has inbred in the family a unity, respect, loyalty and love that for the most part has been destroyed and lost in most modern American families. It is in the best interest of the children that they be kept in the cultural family environment.
Finding 12. That the environment in which petitioner finds herself is almost the exact opposite. It is characterized by self-interest and excessive liberalism.
Both findings were amended on August 22, 1983:
Amended Finding 11. That there is a strong, stable, religious family group relationship within the Pikula family, including respondent and the children, that has been developed, nurtured and cultivated over the years. It has stood like a bedrock through the depression years and post-war years of plenty and permissiveness. This environment has inbred in the family, including respondent, a unity, respect, loyalty and love that for the most part has been destroyed and lost in most modern American families. It is in the best interests and welfare of the children that their custody be awarded to respondent, who shares these attributes and who will assure that these children will be raised in the present culture, family, religious and community environment of which they have been and are integral parts, which environment affords them stability, appropriate socializing and family orientation. The children are properly adjusted to their current home situation, broadly defined, and to the greater community within which they have lived virtually their entire lives. The children behave well and have extensive and qualitative contacts with significant persons within this environment, respondent's personal environment continues to stabilize and improve and is presently satisfactory, as well as gives indications of continuing stability, and it is desirable that the children's continuity with respondent and significant other persons and institutions here be maintained, respondent offering a permanent, well-established, concerned and involved, as well as supporting home for the children, the overall help of those who likely will here affect the mental, physical, emotional, educational, cultural and religious growth of the children is good, and respondent is inclined to, has and likely will continue to care for the children and raise them in their religion, creed and culture.
Amended Finding 12. That the environment in which petitioner finds herself is almost the exact opposite of that in which respondent lives and will raise the children, it would subject the children to considerable uncertainty and instability in home, community, culture, persons and religion, should custody be awarded to petitioner, and further, such an award would disrupt, curtail and likely end the children's nurturing and constant contacts with the environment, persons and institutions now significantly and positively affecting their lives, petitioner's behavior and practices of child rearing as well as her interest in her children are at least subject to serious question and doubt, and it would not be in the children's best interest to award their custody to petitioner.
Little reference was made by the trial court to the factors found in Minn.Stat. § 518.17. Instead, the court emphasized the desirability of the father's extended family. The statute requires an examination of proposed custodians and the environment they would provide. The paternal grandparents did not apply for custody and may not be preferred over the natural mother in...
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