Mom allowed to relocate despite court applying wrong statute

Tennessee child custody case summary on relocation.

Mom allowed to relocate, even though court looked at wrong statute.

Gabriel Calleja v. Whitney Bradfield

The parties in this Knox County, Tennessee, case were the unwed parents of a child born in 2017. The parties in this Knox County, Tennessee case were the unwed parents of a child born in 2017. She began a relationship with an officer who was ordered to report to Alabama. She decided to move and informed her father about it. COVID-19 delayed the trial, but the parties reached an interim agreement. The pandemic delayed the soldier’s deployment, so the mother moved into his North Carolina home. Two years later, she filed a contempt action against the father. She claimed that he vaccinated the child without her consent and took her to behavioral therapy without her consent. The court also reduced the father’s parenting time per year to 105. The father appealed the decision to the Tennessee Court of Appeals.

The court had applied a normal custody statute and the father argued it should have applied the Tennessee parental relocate statute. The appeals panel agreed that the wrong statute was applied, but held that the outcome would have been the exact same.

The court noted that both statutes were based on the child’s interests. The appeals court found that the lower courts had applied the essential requirements for the correct statute.

The court then reviewed the best-interest standards as applied to this case. It acknowledged that the father had some legitimate concerns, but that overall, the lower court’s finding was supported by the evidence.Therefore, it affirmed the lower court’s ruling.

No. E2022-01074-COA-R3-JV (Tenn. Ct. App. Apr. Legal citations omitted. Legal citations have been omitted.

To find out more, visit Tennessee Parent Relocation Statute Law.