 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Hodge v. Steinwinder2/4/2005
The parties were divorced by the Coffee Circuit Court in 1993. Catherine R. Steinwinder ("the mother") was awarded sole physical custody of the parties' two children -- daughters who were then one and three years old; William Jason Hodge ("the father") was ordered to pay child support in the amount of $250 per month. After the divorce, the mother and children moved twice -- first to Montgomery County in March 1998 and then to Jefferson County in August 2001. The father has continued to reside in Coffee County.
In April 2001, the mother filed in the Montgomery Circuit Court a contempt action and a petition to modify the divorce judgment, alleging that the father was in arrears in his child-support payments and seeking an increase in child support . On November 1, 2001, the Montgomery Circuit Court entered a judgment awarding the mother $6,000 in past-due child support and increasing the father's child-support obligation to $600 per month.
On August 8, 2003, the father filed in the Coffee Circuit Court a petition to modify the divorce judgment, seeking physical custody of the children and requesting immediate pendente lite custody based on allegations that the children were being neglected by their mother and emotionally abused by their stepfather. On August 9, the Coffee Circuit Court entered an ex parte order awarding pendente lite custody of the children to the father. On August 11, the mother filed a motion to dismiss the father's petition based on improper venue, alleging that the proper venue for the action was the Montgomery Circuit Court, because, the mother asserted, Montgomery County had been the county of her residence for three years and had been the venue of the earlier contempt and modification action that she had filed -- factors that, according to the mother, made Montgomery County the proper venue until such time as she had established a three-year residency elsewhere, thus making venue proper in another county. On August 14, 2003, the Coffee Circuit Court transferred the action to the Montgomery Circuit Court. On September 15, 2003, the father filed a motion in the Montgomery Circuit Court, asking it to "reconsider" the transfer of the action to that court. On October 22, 2003, the Montgomery Circuit Court denied the father's motion.
On October 23, 2003, the Montgomery Circuit Court appointed a guardian ad litem ("GAL") for the parties' children, who were then almost 12 and 14 years old. On May 19, 2004, the court appointed Dr. Karl Kirkland, a clinical psychologist in Montgomery, as a counselor for the children, pursuant to a request by the GAL. On May 25, 2004, the court conducted an evidentiary hearing.
On June 4, 2004, the GAL submitted an interim report, recommending that custody of the children be returned to the mother; that the children reside with the maternal grandparents in Montgomery for the summer and that, during that time, the children attend "intensive and concentrated counseling sessions" with Dr. Kirkland; that Dr. Kirkland consult with the GAL as to a final custody recommendation at the end of the summer; and that the GAL make a final recommendation to the trial court before the beginning of the 2004-2005 school year.
In a written order entered on June 9, 2004, the trial court determined that the father had failed to present sufficient evidence, pursuant to the standard enunciated in Ex parte McLendon, 455 So. 2d 863 (Ala. 1984), to warrant a change of custody. The court restored physical custody of the children to the mother, conditioned on the children's residing with the maternal grandparents pending further orders of the court. The order further stated, in pertinent part:
"3. That, while the girls are
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Alabama Personal Injury Attorneys
Personal Injury Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|