In the Interest of B.F. and B.F., Children v. the State of Texas

CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedAugust 7, 2025
Docket06-24-00100-CV
StatusPublished

This text of In the Interest of B.F. and B.F., Children v. the State of Texas (In the Interest of B.F. and B.F., Children v. the State of Texas) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In the Interest of B.F. and B.F., Children v. the State of Texas, (Tex. Ct. App. 2025).

Opinion

In the Court of Appeals Sixth Appellate District of Texas at Texarkana

No. 06-24-00100-CV

IN THE INTEREST OF B.F. AND B.F., CHILDREN

On Appeal from the 6th District Court Lamar County, Texas Trial Court No. 92003

Before Stevens, C.J., van Cleef and Rambin, JJ. Memorandum Opinion by Chief Justice Stevens MEMORANDUM OPINION

Father has filed a pro se appeal from the denial of a petition to modify the parent-child

relationship. On appeal, Father argues the trial court erred by (1) allegedly failing to uphold

temporary injunctions, (2) denying Father’s requested relief, (3) limiting Father’s access to the

children by clarifying how much electronic communication a prior order had given to Father,

(4) awarding amicus attorney fees without allowing him the opportunity to object, (5) allowing

Mother to reopen the evidence, and (6) awarding attorney fees to Mother. Father also raises

complaints about the substantive format of the trial court’s findings of fact and conclusions of

law.

We find that Father’s complaints about the temporary proceedings are moot and that

there was no abuse of discretion in the trial court’s decision to deny Father’s petition. We also

find that Father has failed to preserve his third, fourth, and fifth points of error and that the trial

court’s award of attorney fees to Mother was proper. As for Father’s remaining complaints

about the trial court’s findings of fact and conclusions of law, we find them meritless. As a

result, we affirm the trial court’s judgment.

I. Factual and Procedural Background

A. Proceedings Leading to the Order Father Wanted Modified

Mother and Father were divorced on August 5, 2022. They had mediated their divorce

and agreed to all terms of their divorce decree. Pursuant to the agreed decree, Mother and Father

were appointed joint managing conservators of their children, eleven-year-old Brian and seven-

year-old Belle.

2 Father, an officer in the United States Air Force, was stationed in the Republic of Korea

while the divorce was pending but was stationed in Italy when the divorce was finalized. As a

result, Father agreed to give Mother the “the exclusive right to designate the primary residence of

the children within the geographically restricted area of the continental United States,” but, “in

the event that [Father] reside[d] within 100 miles of the residence of the children[,] the residence

of the children [was] restricted to remain within 100 miles of [Father]’s residence.”

Even so, the decree provided,

In the event that . . . [Father] resides within 25 miles of the residence of the children, neither party shall have the exclusive right to designate the primary residence of the children and the parents shall each reside within 25 miles of the residence of the children at the time that [Father] established his residence within 25 miles of the children.

The agreed decree provided for a standard possession order, gave Father the right to “reasonable

electronic communication with the children,” and set Father’s child support obligations.

B. Father Filed A Petition to Modify and Agreed to Pay Amicus Attorney Fees

On July 10, 2023, Father filed a petition to modify the parent-child relationship and

argued that he should be allowed to designate the children’s primary residence without

geographical restriction, among other things. Mother answered Father’s lawsuit and prayed for

attorney fees.1

The parties entered and filed a binding Rule 112 agreement that provided for the

appointment of an amicus attorney. Father made $155,000.00 per year while Mother, who had

1 By agreement, the matter was transferred from the 415th Judicial District Court of Parker County to the 6th Judicial District Court of Lamar County. 2 See TEX. R. CIV. P. 11. 3 been a stay-at-home mom, was a teacher who made $40,000.00 per year. As a result, the Rule

11 agreement provided that Father would be “responsible for the payment to and expenses for

the amicus attorney,” unless the trial court later re-assessed the matter and ordered Mother to pay

some or all of the fees and expenses. Pursuant to the parties’ agreement, the trial court appointed

Erin Clegg as the amicus attorney and ordered Father to pay “100 percent” of her fee.

C. Testimony at Trial Supporting Father

At the final hearing, Father informed the trial court that he wished to move the children to

Colorado, where he had lived for just over a year. He testified that he had agreed to allow

Mother to have the exclusive right to designate the children’s primary residence because of his

job, explaining, “[M]ilitary assignments, you can’t just go anywhere.” However, Father said that

he had moved to Colorado and was living with his new girlfriend, Clara, whom he began dating

in October 2022. Father testified that his relationship between Clara and the kids was “new . . .

still young,” but she spent a lot of time with the children and they were becoming accustomed to

having her around, adding, “[S]he’s with us a lot.” Father said he would be retirement eligible in

two years and believed it was in the best interests of the children for them to move in with him

and Clara. Father said that he had purchased a home in a good school district that had everything

the children might need.

Father also complained that the quality of his communications with the children had

changed and that he occasionally had difficulty speaking to the children during Mother’s period

of possession. Father called every morning and evening, but the children would not answer his

calls sometimes. To demonstrate that the quality of his communications had changed, Father and

4 Clara recorded many of his calls with the children, but Father admitted that he did not know if

the children were aware that they were being recorded.

Father testified that he decided to file the modification petition when he learned that Belle

had slept in the bed with Mother and Mother’s boyfriend, which he thought was inappropriate.

He learned that Brian had slept alone with Mother’s boyfriend in a hotel room once while they

were on vacation and Mother and Belle decided to go out and about. Even so, Father clarified

that he did not believe that the children were in danger. Father was also concerned about the

amount of time the children were spending apart from one another and the time that Brian was

spending apart from Mother. Father testified that he believed Brian was sleeping at his maternal

grandparent’s home (a ten-minute drive from Mother’s home), his great-grandparents home, or at

a friend’s house. Father knew that Brian enjoyed being at his maternal grandparent’s house but

did not approve of the children spending nights there and did not think that a move to Colorado

would impact the children.

Father admitted that Brian and Belle were still going to school in Texas, so he had not

had day-to-day involvement with the children while they were in school. Although the children

were with him during the summer, Father placed the children in summer camp even though Clara

testified that Father had the option to sometimes work from home. Father, who had the children

for forty-two days during the summer, chose to work from home only one day each week and

took the children to summer camp on the other days when he had to work, although the children

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In the Interest of B.F. and B.F., Children v. the State of Texas, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-the-interest-of-bf-and-bf-children-v-the-state-of-texas-texapp-2025.