Tarlan v. Sorensen, No. A04-2257.

• Decision Date: 06 September 2005
• Docket Number: No. A04-2257.
• Citation: 702 N.W.2d 915
• Parties: In re the Marriage of Leyla TARLAN, petitioner, Appellant, v. Alan SORENSEN, Respondent.
• Court: Minnesota Court of Appeals

702 N.W.2d 915

In re the Marriage of Leyla TARLAN, petitioner, Appellant, v. Alan SORENSEN, Respondent.

No. A04-2257.

Court of Appeals of Minnesota.

September 6, 2005.

Kay Nord Hunt, Marc A. Johannsen, Lommen, Nelson, Cole & Stageberg, P.A., Minneapolis, MN, for appellant.

Alan Sorensen, Grand Forks, ND, pro se respondent.

Considered and decided by LANSING, Presiding Judge; KLAPHAKE, Judge; and HALBROOKS, Judge.

OPINION

HALBROOKS, Judge.

Appellant challenges the district court's denial of her motion to compel respondent to reestablish their children's residence in Minnesota and to enroll the parties' daughter in counseling. Appellant argues that the district court erred by (1) failing to enforce its amended judgment relating to the children's residency and (2) failing to conduct an evidentiary hearing relating to appellant's request that the parties' daughter attend counseling sessions and that respondent refrain from monitoring their daughter's weight. Because the district court did not misconstrue its judgment relating to the children's residency, we affirm the denial of appellant's motion to compel respondent to reestablish the children's residency in Minnesota. But because appellant alleged facts that, if true, rise to a level of emotional endangerment and could impair the emotional development of the parties' daughter, the district court erred by failing to hold a hearing under Minn.Stat. § 518.176, subd. 1 (2004). We therefore affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand for an evidentiary hearing.

FACTS

This is the most recent appeal in acrimonious and contentious dissolution-related proceedings. Appellant Leyla Tarlan and respondent Alan Sorensen dissolved their marriage in February 1999. In a subsequent order dated April 11, 2000, the district court awarded sole physical and sole legal custody of the parties' three children to respondent, subject to appellant's parenting time. In the spring of 2001, respondent was accepted to three law schools in Minnesota, as well as to the University of North Dakota School of Law (UND). He decided to attend UND because he "thought that it would provide the best situation for the children." In July 2001, respondent moved the district court to amend the judgment in order to change the residence of the children to Grand Forks, North Dakota. By order dated September 10, 2002, the district court granted the motion and permitted respondent "to reside with the children in Grand Forks, North Dakota until [r]espondent completes his education at [UND]."

In the spring of 2004, respondent graduated from UND and accepted an offer of employment in Grand Forks, where he and the children continue to reside. In June 2004, the Grand Forks County Social Service Center (social services) recommended, but did not require, that the parties' daughter undergo counseling because of "[p]sychological [m]altreatment by [respondent]." Social services recommended counseling because of respondent's weekly monitoring of his daughter's weight and use of derogatory language around the children.

Appellant moved the district court for an order requiring, among other things, that respondent (1) reestablish the children's residency in Minnesota and (2) immediately enroll the parties' daughter in counseling and refrain from weighing their daughter in order to monitor her weight. In an affidavit to the district court, appellant alleged that respondent was "being cruel" by refusing to enroll the parties' daughter in counseling and by "refusing to stop weighing [their daughter] against her will even when she was visibly traumatized" by respondent's actions. The district court heard arguments by counsel and subsequently denied appellant's motion without explanation in its order and without a memorandum. This appeal follows.

ISSUES

1. Did the district court err by denying appellant's motion to reestablish the children's residency in Minnesota?

2. Did the district court err by denying an evidentiary hearing when a prima facie case of endangerment had been established?

ANALYSIS

I.

The district court's amended judgment allowed respondent "to reside with the children in Grand Forks, North Dakota until [r]espondent completes his education at [UND]." Citing Dent v. Casaga, 296 Minn. 292, 296, 208 N.W.2d 734, 737 (1973), for the proposition that an amended judgment must be enforced by the district court unless a modification is ordered, appellant argues that the district court should have required respondent to return the children's residence to Minnesota after he completed law school. Because the amended judgment lacks an explicit requirement that respondent return the children's residence to Minnesota after he finished law school, appellant's argument assumes that the amended judgment contains an implicit return-of-residence requirement. By denying appellant's motion, the district court rejected this assumption.

Whether a dissolution judgment is ambiguous is a legal question. Halverson v. Halverson, 381 N.W.2d 69, 71 (Minn.App.1986). If a judgment is ambiguous, a district court may construe or clarify it. Stieler v. Stieler, 244 Minn. 312, 319, 70 N.W.2d 127, 131 (1955). The meaning of an ambiguous judgment provision is a fact question, which we review for clear error. Landwehr v. Landwehr, 380 N.W.2d 136, 139-40 (Minn.App.1985). Notably, a district court's construction of its own ruling is given great weight on appeal. Johnson v. Johnson, 627 N.W.2d 359, 363 (Minn.App.2001), review denied (Minn. Aug. 15, 2001).

Here, the same district court has presided over these proceedings for the past seven years—ever since appellant initially filed for dissolution in June 1998. While the language of the district court's order amending the residency requirement of the judgment contemplates that respondent could reside in Grand Forks until the end of his legal education, it remains ambiguous as to what would transpire after respondent finished law school. Nor is there any other language in the judgment or elsewhere in the record clearly showing that the district court decided or intended to decide what the children's residence could or should be in 2004. We therefore presume that the district court was aware of its own language and, nevertheless, decided to deny appellant's motion requesting that respondent return the children to Minnesota. On this record, and considering the weight that appellate courts give a district court's reading of its own judgment, we cannot say that the district court clearly erred by resolving the ambiguity in the amended judgment by reading it to not require respondent to return the children's residence to Minnesota when he completed law school.¹

II.

Appellant next argues that the district court abused its discretion by failing, at a minimum, to hold an evidentiary hearing as to whether the parties' daughter should undergo mental-health counseling because of respondent's continuous monitoring of their daughter's weight. We initially note that as legal custodian of the parties' daughter, respondent has "the right to determine the child's upbringing, including education, health care, and religious training." Minn.Stat. § 518.003, subd. 3(a) (2004) (emphasis added). Under Minn. Stat. § 518.176, subd. 1 (2004),

the parent with whom the child resides may determine the child's upbringing, including . . . health care . . . unless the court after hearing, finds, upon motion by the other parent, that in the absence of a specific limitation of the authority of the parent with whom the child resides, the child's physical or emotional health is likely to be endangered or the child's emotional development impaired.[²]

To be clear, it is important to note that appellant has not challenged the current custody arrangement, but instead has challenged respondent's decisions relating to their daughter's mental health on this issue. By moving the district court to order mental-health counseling for the parties' daughter, contrary to respondent's wishes, appellant challenges respondent's decisions regarding the daughter's health care, thereby implicating Minn.Stat. § 518.176, subd. 1.

A. Limitation on Custodial Parent's Authority and Custody Modification

Caselaw addressing application of Minn. Stat. § 518.176, subd. 1, is limited. But the statute requires a showing by the moving party that, absent a court order, "the child's physical or emotional health is likely to be endangered or the child's emotional development impaired." Minn.Stat. § 518.176, subd. 1. Thus, the considerations involved in evaluating a motion to limit a custodian's ability to make healthcare decisions are similar to those used to evaluate endangerment-based motions to modify custody. See Minn.Stat. § 518.18(d)(iv) (2004) (instructing district courts, in endangerment-based motions to modify custody, to retain existing custody arrangements unless there are changed circumstances showing modification is in the child's best interests and "the child's present environment endangers the child's physical or emotional health or impairs the child's emotional development and the harm likely to be caused by a change of environment is outweighed by the advantage of a change to the child").

This similarity of considerations is consistent with the fact that the statutory language in Minn.Stat. § 518.176, subd. 1, regarding motions to limit a custodial parent's authority to make health-care decisions is nearly identical with the language relating to custody modifications found in Minn.Stat. § 518.18(d)(iv). Compare Minn.Stat. § 518.176, subd. 1 (stating that, generally, a district court may not limit a custodial parent's ability to make healthcare decisions for a child unless the district court finds that "the child's physical or emotional health is likely to be endangered or the child's emotional development impaired"), with Minn.Stat. § 518.18(d)(iv) (requiring district court not to grant an endangerment-based motion to modify custody...