In Re Paternity of PEM

818 N.E.2d 32, 2004 WL 2648292
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedNovember 22, 2004
Docket49A02-0402-JV-166
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 818 N.E.2d 32 (In Re Paternity of PEM) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In Re Paternity of PEM, 818 N.E.2d 32, 2004 WL 2648292 (Ind. Ct. App. 2004).

Opinion

818 N.E.2d 32 (2004)

In re the PATERNITY OF P.E.M.
Salvator Thomas Mazza, Appellant-Respondent,
v.
Norman L. Merkler and Jeannie B. Merkler, Appellee-Petitioner.

No. 49A02-0402-JV-166.

Court of Appeals of Indiana.

November 22, 2004.

*34 William J. Rawls, Indianapolis, IN, Attorney for Appellant.

Kimberly A. Jackson, Jensen & Associates, Indianapolis, IN, Attorney for Appellee.

*35 OPINION

RILEY, Judge.

STATEMENT OF THE CASE

Appellant-Respondent, Salvator Thomas Mazza (Mazza), appeals the trial court's Findings of Fact and Conclusion of Law in favor of Appellees-Petitioners/Intervenors, Norman L. Merkler and Jeannie B. Merkler (collectively, the Merklers), with regard to grandparental visitation rights.

We affirm.

ISSUES

Mazza raises four issues on appeal, which we restate as follows:

(1) Whether the trial court abused its discretion by denying Mazza's petition for modification of the Merklers' grandparental visitation rights;
(2) Whether the trial court abused its discretion in failing to award attorney's fees to Mazza after the Merklers withdrew their petition to modify custody on the day of the hearing;
(3) Whether the trial court abused its discretion by refusing to admit multiple police reports under the public records exception to the hearsay rule; and
(4) Whether the trial court erred when it found Mazza in contempt for violating the trial court's grandparental visitation order.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

On September 3, 1993, the Marion Superior Court, Juvenile Division, issued a Paternity Decree declaring Mazza to be the father of P.M., born on October 29, 1992. Initially, primary custody was awarded to Susan Merkler (Susan), P.M.'s mother. During P.M.'s first seven years of life, she and Susan lived primarily with the Merklers, P.M.'s maternal grandparents. Susan's mental illness, and her resulting erratic and violent behavior, prompted Mazza to seek custody of P.M. in 1998. In response, the Merklers filed an emergency petition for custody, which was granted by the trial court. They continued to have legal custody of P.M. until June 1, 2000, when the trial court awarded custody to Mazza. Since that time, P.M. has lived with Mazza, his girlfriend, and their daughter in Brown County.

In 2001, the Merklers sought and obtained visitation rights pursuant to the Indiana Grandparent Visitation Act, Ind.Code § 31-17-5-1. By its Order of April 23, 2001 (2001 Order), the trial court awarded the following visitation rights to the Merklers:

[the Merklers] are awarded visitation rights. They shall consist of the second weekend each month during which [Susan] has visitation rights and one evening per week, in alternate weeks, during which [Susan] has mid week visitation pursuant to the Parenting Time Guidelines adopted by the Indiana Supreme Court. [Susan] shall not be prohibited from visiting with the child during the above times set forth.
Moreover, [the Merklers] shall have visitation rights during one week during the summer, to be decided by May 1 of each year, and three days during the child's winter break from school. The aforementioned visitation period shall be in addition to those provided to [Susan] pursuant to the Parenting Time Guidelines adopted by the Indiana Supreme Court.

(Appellee's App. pp. 11-12). The 2001 Order further prohibited Danny Merkler, the Merklers' son, from being present during the visitation.

Almost immediately after the entry of the trial court's 2001 Order, Susan and the *36 Merklers experienced problems exercising their visitation rights. They claimed Mazza was actively preventing them from seeing P.M. Consequently, on February 25, 2002, the Merklers filed a petition to modify custody in an attempt to regain custody of P.M. On March 18, 2002, after a pretrial conference, the trial court found that Mazza failed to abide by the visitation order. In its Order, issued on the same day, the trial court reiterated the Merklers' right to visitation and ordered the make up of lost visitation. After a custody evaluation was conducted, the Merklers withdrew their petition to modify custody. On October 22, 2003, following final hearings respectively on December 23, 2002 and September 3, 2003, the trial court entered its Findings of Fact and Conclusion of Law. In its Order, the trial court repeated the Merklers' grandparental visitation rights, as stipulated in its 2001 Order, and found Mazza in contempt for interfering with the Merklers visitation.

Mazza now appeals. Additional facts will be provided as necessary.

DISCUSSION AND DECISION

I. Petition for Modification of Grandparent's Visitation Rights

Mazza first contends that the trial court abused its discretion by affirming the Merklers' right to grandparental visitation, as set forth in its 2001 Order. Specifically, Mazza claims that since the trial court's 2001 Order was not properly supported by findings of fact and conclusions of law, it is void. Thus, Mazza continues, the trial court cannot now, in its Order of October 22, 2003, re-affirm the non-enforceable 2001 Order. Conversely, the Merklers argue that Mazza has waived his right to attack the 2001 Order by virtue of his failure to directly appeal from the order and therefore, he cannot now, by way of a collateral attack, challenge the validity of the trial court's 2001 Order.

We have recognized before that the terms `void' and `voidable' are frequently used interchangeably, without due regard for the technical difference between their meanings. See Trook v. Lafayette Bank and Trust Co., 581 N.E.2d 941, 944 (Ind.Ct.App.1991).

Void in the strict sense means that an instrument of transaction is nugatory and ineffectual so that nothing can cure it; voidable exists when an imperfection or defect can be cured by the act or confirmation of him who could take advantage of it.

Black's Law Dictionary, 812 (abridged 5th ed.1983). `Void' therefore may only be properly used when the action or subject matter it describes is of no effect whatsoever, and is incapable of confirmation or ratification. See Trook, 581 N.E.2d at 944. `Voidable,' on the other hand, describes an action or subject matter which nonetheless operates to accomplish the thing sought to be accomplished, until the fatal flaw is judicially ascertained and declared. See id. A judgment (or appealable order) that is voidable may only be attacked through a direct appeal, whereas a void judgment is subject to collateral attack. Id.

In the instant case, Mazza asserts that the 2001 Order should be declared void because it lacks proper findings of facts and conclusions of law pursuant to I.C. § 31-17-5-6, which provides: "[u]pon hearing evidence in support of an opposition to a petition filed [for Grandparent's Visitation], the court shall enter a decree setting forth the court's findings and conclusions." In support of his argument, Mazza refers to our decision in McCune v. Frey, 783 N.E.2d 752 (Ind.Ct.App.2003).

In McCune,

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818 N.E.2d 32, 2004 WL 2648292, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-paternity-of-pem-indctapp-2004.