Family Law

Mom Cannot Be Held in Contempt For Telling Son to Not Take “Treasures from Sunken Boat”

Tennessee Child Custody Case Summary on Contempt in Divorce and Family Law.

Mom cannot be held in contempt because she told her son not to take treasures off a sunken boat.

Abigail Lynn Sevigny v. Warren Maxwell Sevigny

The couple in this Davidson County case, Tennessee, were married in 2014, and had a baby in 2016. In 2021, a divorce was granted to the mother on grounds of irreconcilable differences. The case prompted a first appeal to the Tennessee Court of Appeals, which issued a ruling in 2023 on the mother’s petition for contempt.

While that case was pending, the father filed his own petition for contempt. He claimed that the mother had violated the permanent parenting plan 29 times. The mother claimed that certain violations, based on the Parental Bill of Rights were barred by constitution. However, the trial court, judge Phillip R. Robinson disagreed. The court found the mother guilty on seven counts of contempt and sentenced her for 29 consecutive days of jail. The sentence was suspended pending strict compliance with the court’s orders. The court also awarded the father’s attorney’s fees of over $6000. The appeals court noted that Tennessee has a long tradition of granting courts the power of punishment for contempt dating back to 1831. The proceedings are neither entirely civil nor criminal, and the party has a right to notice and a chance to respond. She referred to the Parental Bill of Rights, which was incorporated into the order. She pointed out that the provision relating to derogatory remarks is not enforceable. This was based on the claim that the mother had “talked badly” about the father. He referred to a sunken vessel that had been there many years. The incident involved a child, who was with his father, removing the navigation light from a partially-sunken pontoon boat to show it off to her. The mother told the child that it was theft because he wanted to remove all the treasures from the boat. For these reasons, the Court of Appeals reversed this portion of the ruling.

Similarly, the father objected to his failure to get notice of a kindergarten parent orientation.

But the appeals court found that the alleged violation was in relation to a provision regarding extracurricular activities, and school was not an extracurricular activity.

After reviewing the entire order, the Court of Appeals concluded that all of the counts of contempt should be reversed. The court also awarded the mother’s attorney fees and remanded it to calculate the amount. Judge Kenny Armstrong authored the decision of the Court of Appeals, which was joined by Judges J. Steven Stafford & Carma Dennis McGee.

Story originally seen here

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