Title: Oregon Father’s Request for Custody Modification Reversed. BY: Amanda S.
The Oregon Court of Appeals held in In the Matter Of Marriage Of Sconce, a father who is seeking custody modification would not be granted this motion on the grounds of substantial change in circumstances just because the mother wanted to move the children to another state.
In this case, the mother and the father had had a baby with Down Syndrome in 1999. In November 2001, the mother was granted custody of the child and the father was granted liberal visitation rights. In 2003, the father wished to gain custody because of the mother’s new husband who had threatened the child; however, this motion was denied in 2004 because the husband was killed in a car accident.
In June 2010, the mother moved the court for an order modifying the parenting time of the father, in order for her to relocate the child and her three other children to Idaho to attend college. In response to this motion, the father took this opportunity to again ask for a change of custody alleging that the mother would not be able to meet the needs of the child if she were to relocate. The court denied the mother’s motion to modify parenting time, stating that it was not in the best interest of the child to move.
The trial court addressed the father’s request by agreeing with the father that circumstances had changed dramatically since 2001 and he should be granted custody. However, the Oregon court of Appeals determined that that trial court erred because they should have looked at the starting point as the 2004 decision because it was the last decision about custody. Given this error, the court reversed the decision stating that the proposed move alone was not a substantial enough change to require a change in custody.
Labels for the post: child custody, substantial change in circumstances, custody modification
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