Carr v. Carr

2016 Ohio 6986
Ohio Court of Appeals·Decided September 26, 2016·No. CA2015-02-015, CA2015-03-020·Published·Cited by 8 cases

Opinion

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS

TWELFTH APPELLATE DISTRICT OF OHIO WARREN COUNTY

DEVIN CARR, :

CASE NOS. CA2015-02-015

Appellant/Cross-Appellee, : CA2015-03-020

: OPINION

- vs - 9/26/2016 :

AMANDA CARR, :

Appellee/Cross-Appellant. :

APPEAL FROM WARREN COUNTY COURT OF COMMON PLEAS DOMESTIC RELATIONS DIVISION Case No. 13DR36836

Fred S. Miller, Baden & Jones Building, 246 High Street, Hamilton, Ohio 45011, for appellant/cross-appellee

Timothy A. Tepe, Dinsmore & Shohl LLP, 225 East Fifth Street, Suite 1900, Cincinnati, Ohio 45202, for appellee/cross-appellant

M. POWELL, P.J.

{¶ 1} Plaintiff-appellant/cross-appellee, Devin Carr ("Father"), appeals a decision of the Warren County Court of Common Pleas, Domestic Relations Division, granting defendant-appellee/cross-appellant, Amanda Carr ("Mother"), sole authority to make all non- emergency medical decisions regarding the parties' minor children, and granting the parties equal parenting time. Mother appeals the trial court's decision designating Father as

CA2015-03-020

residential parent and legal custodian of the parties' children.

{¶ 2} The parties were married in August 2011. They have two children, a daughter born in April 2012 ("Daughter") and a son born in September 2013 ("Son"). In December 2013, Father filed for divorce. On December 10, 2014, a hearing on Father's divorce complaint was held before the trial court. The primary concern at the hearing was the allocation of parental rights and responsibilities for the children.

{¶ 3} Throughout the marriage, the family resided in a house belonging to Father and located in Morrow, Ohio. Although Father has a bachelor's degree in Family Studies and Mother has a bachelor's degree in Science and Family Studies, neither party was employed during the marriage. Rather, the family was supported by Father's annual annuity of $55,104.1 The parties separated on Thanksgiving 2013.

{¶ 4} Two arguments precipitated the parties' separation. On the eve of Thanksgiving 2013, during an argument between the parties over how to properly warm up frozen breast milk, Father became so angry he punched a hole in a wall. At the time, Son was in his car seat beneath the hole and small pieces of dry wall fell on him. The next day, the parties invited their parents to their house for a Thanksgiving dinner. Father and Mother got into an argument when Mother kept trying to interfere with a private conversation between Father and his mother ("Paternal Grandmother"). Following an altercation during which everyone was yelling and the children were crying, Father left the marital home with his parents. When he later returned, the house was empty: Mother had vacated the marital residence with the children. Mother returned the children to Father and the marital home 11 days later.

1. Father suffered a brain injury as a child when he was hit by a pick-up truck while waiting for the school bus. As a result of a settlement, he receives an annual annuity of $55,104 for life. Father has never had a full-time job and has chosen not to work.

CA2015-03-020

{¶ 5} Mother moved to a two-bedroom apartment in East Price Hill, Cincinnati, Ohio, close to her mother's home. Mother is currently a graduate student at Northern Kentucky University ("NKU") with evening classes twice a week. She obtained a graduate assistantship at NKU that pays her $14.10 an hour for 20 hours a week. The assistantship also provides her with six hours of tuition. Mother testified it will take her two and one-half years to obtain her master's degree. Ultimately, she intends to move to Northern Kentucky to be closer to her graduate school, assistantship, and church. Mother does not believe the move will increase the driving distance to the place where the parties exchange the children for parenting time.

{¶ 6} Following Father's divorce complaint and throughout the proceedings, the parties were granted parenting time with the children on a two-day rotating schedule. Consequently, the parties exchanged the children every two days at noon at a gas station on Montgomery Road, Cincinnati, near I-275. Both parties testified about problems at the exchanges. Father complained that Mother refuses to speak to him about the children and that she never exchanges the children prior to noon, the time Father's parenting time begins, even if Mother and the children arrive early for the exchange. Paternal Grandmother corroborated Father's testimony. By contrast, Mother testified she arrives on time for the exchanges but that Father is angry because he arrives early and ends up waiting.

{¶ 7} Mother testified the exchanges are always "violent." Specifically, Mother claims that Father is angry, throws things belonging to the children at her, and yells and cusses at her in front of the children. A bystander who was at the gas station during the November 4, 2014 exchange corroborated Mother's testimony. The bystander testified that five minutes before noon, Mother was in her car getting the children ready to go when Father approached the car and started yelling, "You're cutting into my time," to which Mother replied, "it's not

CA2015-03-020

even twelve yet." As Mother started getting Daughter out of the car, Father yanked the child out of Mother's arms and put her in his car. Father then grabbed Son as Mother was trying to hug and kiss the child, put the child in his car, slammed the children's shoes on the trunk of Mother's car, and drove off. The bystander also testified that "curse words were exchanged," Mother became upset she could not say goodbye to the children, and the exchange left Mother shaking and distraught. Father admitted snatching Daughter from Mother and grabbing Son out of Mother's arms during one of the exchanges.

{¶ 8} Father and Mother love their children and are bonded with them. The children are also bonded with their paternal and maternal relatives. However, the record shows that both parties have differing childrearing philosophies and practices which often clash. Each describe the other parent's care of the children as unhealthy and/or abusive and view their own parenting care as "the right way" to rear the children.

{¶ 9} Testimony at the hearing revealed that in June 2014, Daughter suffered a second-degree burn on her foot when Father put her on a hot stove so that she could watch the turn table in a microwave. Mother did not find out about the burn until the following day when the parties exchanged the children. Mother also testified Father has once left Daughter unattended in a bathtub, and that Daughter has fallen down the stairs several times under Father's supervision.

{¶ 10} The parties' main disagreement concerned whether the children suffered from constipation and the appropriate course of treatment. Mother testified that both children have an ongoing problem with constipation which she tries to address with diet and a laxative recommended by their pediatrician. Father does not believe the children are constipated. He has given the laxative to Daughter but stopped giving it, believing it made Daughter sluggish. Father admitted he stopped giving the laxative without first consulting the

CA2015-03-020

pediatrician, despite an agreed entry ordering the parties to "comply with the recommendations of the children's doctor [o]n all matters regarding the children's health and well-being," and a subsequent entry from the trial court ordering the parties to "administer the laxative as suggested by the pediatrician until the pediatrician recommends otherwise." Father also testified that Mother is overprotective and tends to call the doctor's office or take the children there too often for many trivial reasons.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Carr v. Carr, 2016 Ohio 6986 (Ohio Ct. App. 2016).

2016 Ohio 6986 (Carr v. Carr) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

Motes v. Motes
2026 Ohio 307 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2026)
In re B.C.
2026 Ohio 97 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2026)
K.L.F. v. E.A.B.
2024 Ohio 812 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2024)
L.S. v. C.S.
2024 Ohio 206 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2024)
B.S. v. M.M.
2021 Ohio 176 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2021)
Leach v. Leach
2020 Ohio 1181 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2020)
Suwareh v. Nwankwo
2018 Ohio 3737 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2018)
Lykins v. Lykins
2018 Ohio 2144 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2018)
In re T.G.O.
2017 Ohio 151 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2017)
Sejka v. Sejka
2017 Ohio 2 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2017)