Summary 2010 WY 114

Summary of Decision issued August 10, 2010

Summaries are prepared by Law Librarians and are not official statements of the Wyoming Supreme Court.

Case Name: JS v. MB

Citation: 2010 WY 114

Docket Number: S-09-0200

Appeal from the District Court of Natrona County, the Honorable Scott W. Skavdahl, Judge.

Representing JS: Donna Sheen, Cheyenne, Wyoming.

Representing MB: Richard L. Harden, Casper, Wyoming.

Facts/Discussion: JS (Father) challenged the district court’s order requiring the parties to exchange child visitation on a weekly basis when the child reaches age 5 in 2013.
Father argued that the district court abused its discretion by ordering what amounts to shared custody, although each party sought primary custody.
In this case, as per the court order, the sharing is of visitation, not of custody, the parties must operate in terms of visitation as they might if the court had ordered shared custody. When the district court’s exercise of discretion in custody matters involves splitting custody of children between parents, it must provide an explanation of its reasoning and place its findings on the record. The Court noted the district court’s order explained the reasoning and analysis in full. The Court stated the primary concern in the instant case was the extent to which the parents are able to communicate and work together to promote the child’s best interest.

Conclusion: The district court did not abuse its discretion in ordering the parties to alternate weeks with the child beginning at age five. In ordering as it did, the court simply modified the current visitation arrangement to accommodate the growing child, which is routinely done in long-term custody and visitation plans.

Affirmed.

J. Hill delivered the decision.

C.J. Kite specially concurring: The Chief Justice concurred but wrote separately to point out that the jurisprudence provides that divided custody is not favored and should not be imposed simply because both parents are equally qualified to be awarded custody. Although the Justice concurred, she stated she did not believe the case should be relied upon as indicating a deviation from the Court’s long line of cases disfavoring divided custody and requiring exceptional circumstances.

Link: http://tinyurl.com/2bwh7e7 .

[SPECIAL NOTE: This opinion uses the "Universal Citation." It was given an "official" citation when it was issued. You should use this citation whenever you cite the opinion, with a P.3d parallel citation. Please note when you look at the opinion that all of the paragraphs are numbered. When you pinpoint cite to a quote, you should cite to this paragraph number rather than to any page number. If you need assistance using the Universal Citation format, please contact the Wyoming State Law Library.]