« Military Pension and Compensation Resources |
Main
| Decision expected in Civil Union Termination Case (Alons v. District Court) »
June 08, 2005
Servicemembers Civil Relief Act and Child Custody
In a case involving an apparent conflict between the "best interests" standard the federal Servicemembers Civil Relief Act ("SCRA"), the Iowa Supreme Court has reversed the recent Court of Appeals decision of In re Marriage of Grantham that the SCRA automatic stay prevented a custody modification while a servicemember-parent was deployed. The decision appears to be largely fact-based on the particular circumstances of this case, where concealment of important information by one parent from another may have occurred.
Of import more generally is the affirmance of at least one procedural aspect of the Court of Appeals decision:
We agree with the court of appeals that the filing of the petition to modify the child custody provisions of a dissolution decree does not carry with it a right for the determination of temporary custody pendente lite. Modification proceedings differ from original actions in this regard because, in original actions for dissolution, the parties start out with equal rights to child custody, and their separation creates a need for temporary orders until permanent orders are entered at the conclusion of the litigation. As the court of appeals correctly noted, once child custody has been finally settled in a dissolution decree, the provisions of the decree should continue in force until such time as the decree is modified. No need exists for temporary orders in the interim.
The decision appears to carve out an unstated exception to the rule where, as in this case, the custodial parent is absent and has delegated care-taking responsibilities to a third-party instead of the other parent. This exception should be limited to similar cases where the custodial parent is physically absent from the children, as in a military deployment. It does, however, raise a question as to the validity of military family care plans.
Posted on June 08, 2005 in Custody, Federal Laws-Cases | Permalink
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Servicemembers Civil Relief Act and Child Custody:
Main
| Decision expected in Civil Union Termination Case (Alons v. District Court) »
June 08, 2005
Servicemembers Civil Relief Act and Child Custody
In a case involving an apparent conflict between the "best interests" standard the federal Servicemembers Civil Relief Act ("SCRA"), the Iowa Supreme Court has reversed the recent Court of Appeals decision of In re Marriage of Grantham that the SCRA automatic stay prevented a custody modification while a servicemember-parent was deployed. The decision appears to be largely fact-based on the particular circumstances of this case, where concealment of important information by one parent from another may have occurred.
Of import more generally is the affirmance of at least one procedural aspect of the Court of Appeals decision:
We agree with the court of appeals that the filing of the petition to modify the child custody provisions of a dissolution decree does not carry with it a right for the determination of temporary custody pendente lite. Modification proceedings differ from original actions in this regard because, in original actions for dissolution, the parties start out with equal rights to child custody, and their separation creates a need for temporary orders until permanent orders are entered at the conclusion of the litigation. As the court of appeals correctly noted, once child custody has been finally settled in a dissolution decree, the provisions of the decree should continue in force until such time as the decree is modified. No need exists for temporary orders in the interim.
The decision appears to carve out an unstated exception to the rule where, as in this case, the custodial parent is absent and has delegated care-taking responsibilities to a third-party instead of the other parent. This exception should be limited to similar cases where the custodial parent is physically absent from the children, as in a military deployment. It does, however, raise a question as to the validity of military family care plans.
Posted on June 08, 2005 in Custody, Federal Laws-Cases | Permalink
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Servicemembers Civil Relief Act and Child Custody:
© 2004-2011 iadivorce.com All Rights Reserved.