Dad’s Allegations Don’t warrant a Change in Custody
Tennessee child custody case summary on custody modification in divorce and family law.
Dad’s allegations don’t warrant custody change.
Christopher L. Wiesmueller v. Corrine Nichole Oliver
The parents in this Dickson County, Tennessee, case were divorced in 2019. The permanent parenting plan named the mother as the primary residential parent and granted the father 110 days of parenting time. A year later, he filed a motion for modification of custody, which was denied. The father also filed a petition for modification, based on his alleged bad character. The father testified the mother denied visitation to the child for a few weeks after COVID was diagnosed. He also claimed that his mother had limited his phone contacts. He gave the children smart phones but she didn’t allow them to use them in her home. The mother said that her children could call him. In an interview, the children told the judge that they knew their parents loved them. The court granted the father’s request for a modification of child support. This was on the grounds that the parties’ incomes had changed significantly.
The father appealed to the Tennessee Court of Appeals.
The father first argued that the trial court had made various pretrial errors, but the appeals court quickly disposed of these arguments. The court then turned to the parenting agreement. The appeals court agreed. The father pointed out that two times the children were delivered late, and that there was a dispute over phone usage. Both courts agreed that the fact that children were generally well-adjusted outweighed this. The father had more success in obtaining child support. The trial court completed the worksheets for child support, but applying the minimum rule was an error.
