Jaclyn Marie Wieland v. Jacob Allen Swisher

CourtMichigan Court of Appeals
DecidedJuly 8, 2025
Docket372010
StatusUnpublished

This text of Jaclyn Marie Wieland v. Jacob Allen Swisher (Jaclyn Marie Wieland v. Jacob Allen Swisher) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Jaclyn Marie Wieland v. Jacob Allen Swisher, (Mich. Ct. App. 2025).

Opinion

If this opinion indicates that it is “FOR PUBLICATION,” it is subject to revision until final publication in the Michigan Appeals Reports.

STATE OF MICHIGAN

COURT OF APPEALS

JACLYN MARIE WIELAND, UNPUBLISHED July 08, 2025 Plaintiff-Appellant, 9:44 AM

v No. 372010 Kalkaska Circuit Court JACOB ALLEN SWISHER, LC No. 2017-012517-DS

Defendant-Appellee.

Before: PATEL, P.J., and BOONSTRA and CAMERON, JJ.

PER CURIAM.

Plaintiff appeals by right the trial court’s order awarding sole legal and physical custody of the parties’ child, JCS, to defendant and holding plaintiff in contempt for violating several of the trial court’s earlier orders. We affirm.

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

After JCS was born, the parties had a mutually antagonistic on-again-off-again relationship. JCS witnessed some of the parties’ arguments. The parties ultimately entered into a consent judgment providing for joint custody and equal parenting time.

After the consent judgment was entered, plaintiff displayed a pattern of intentionally excluding defendant from JCS’s life. She took JCS to California more than once, contrary to the consent judgment, and made numerous unsubstantiated allegations of sexual and physical abuse by defendant against both herself and JCS. JCS was forensically interviewed multiple times, and had in camera interviews with the trial court. Several investigators, and the trial court, believed that, as a result of these interviews, that plaintiff was coaching JCS to keep her away from defendant. The trial court noted that, although JCS stated she was afraid of defendant and wanted to remain with plaintiff, “her language was simply a reflection of what the Plaintiff [was] requesting, which [was] to have the Defendant out of the picture and out of the minor child’s life.”

-1- II. ESTABLISHED CUSTODIAL ENVIRONMENT

Plaintiff argues that, because an established custodial environment existed with her alone, the trial court erred in finding that JCS had an established custodial environment with both parents. Even if the trial court’s finding was erroneous, any such error would be harmless. Thus, plaintiff’s argument fails.

“When resolving important decisions that affect the welfare of the child, the court must first consider whether the proposed change would modify the established custodial environment.” Stoudemire v Thomas, 344 Mich App 34, 43; 999 NW2d 43 (2022) (quotation marks and citation omitted).1 “The custodial environment of a child is established if over an appreciable time the child naturally looks to the custodian in that environment for guidance, discipline, the necessities of life, and parental comfort.” Id., quoting MCL 722.27(1)(c).

Whether an established custodial environment exists is critical. If an established custodial environment exists and the proposed change would alter that custodial environment, the moving party “must demonstrate by clear and convincing evidence that the change is in the child’s best interests.” However, if no custodial environment exists, a prior custody order may be altered merely on the basis of a preponderance of the evidence that doing so would be in the child’s best interests. [Stoudemire, 344 Mich App at 48 (citations omitted).]

There is no dispute that JCS had, at a minimum, an established custodial environment with plaintiff. Thus, the trial court held defendant to the correct clear-and-convincing-evidence standard in granting defendant’s motion to modify custody. Id. While it is true that plaintiff also moved for a change in custody, our initial focus is on whether the trial court’s ruling on defendant’s motion applied the correct standard. It did. Notwithstanding this, plaintiff’s argument focuses on how the trial court’s alleged error affected the standard to which she was held for pursuing her own motion to change custody and parenting time. But plaintiff fails to explain how this lower standard would change the outcome of the case overall. The trial court found, under the correct standard, that defendant was entitled to sole legal and physical custody of JCS. The standard to which plaintiff was held is irrelevant to the trial court’s finding in this respect. Thus, even if the trial court erred in finding that JCS had an established custodial environment with both parties, any such error was harmless as to its ultimate decision.

III. BEST INTEREST FACTORS & SOLE CUSTODY

Plaintiff next argues the trial court erred because the evidence clearly preponderates against most of the trial court’s factual findings as to JCS’s best interests. We disagree as to all but one factor, which was harmless in relation to the trial court’s overall determination that sole custody with defendant was in JCS’s best interests.

1 A party seeking to modify custody or parenting time must also establish a change of circumstances. Stoudemire, 344 Mich App at 44. Neither party argues that there was not a change of circumstances.

-2- A. STANDARDS OF REVIEW

In child custody cases, the trial court’s factual findings are reviewed under the great- weight-of-the-evidence standard and must be affirmed unless the evidence clearly preponderates against them. Stoudemire, 344 Mich App at 42. “In reviewing the trial court’s factual findings, we defer to the trial court’s credibility determinations.” Safdar v Aziz, 342 Mich App 165, 176; 992 NW2d 913 (2022). The trial court’s ultimate custody decision is reviewed for an abuse of discretion; this occurs when “the trial court’s decision is so palpably and grossly violative of fact and logic that it evidences a perversity of will, a defiance of judgment, or the exercise of passion or bias.” Stoudemire, 344 Mich App at 42-43 (quotation marks and citation omitted). A trial court’s erroneous finding under a single best-interest factor can be harmless if the remaining factors support the trial court’s ultimate custody decision. Brown v Brown, 332 Mich App 1, 26; 955 NW2d 515 (2020).

B. BEST INTEREST FACTORS

“To determine a child’s best interests, the trial court is required to consider the 12 best- interest factors found in MCL 722.23 and to apply the appropriate standard of proof.” Kuebler v Kuebler, 346 Mich App 633, 671; 13 NW3d 339 (2023). These factors are:

(a) The love, affection, and other emotional ties existing between the parties involved and the child.

(b) The capacity and disposition of the parties involved to give the child love, affection, and guidance and to continue the education and raising of the child in his or her religion or creed, if any.

(c) The capacity and disposition of the parties involved to provide the child with food, clothing, medical care or other remedial care recognized and permitted under the laws of this state in place of medical care, and other material needs.

(d) The length of time the child has lived in a stable, satisfactory environment, and the desirability of maintaining continuity.

(e) The permanence, as a family unit, of the existing or proposed custodial home or homes.

(f) The moral fitness of the parties involved.

(g) The mental and physical health of the parties involved.

(h) The home, school, and community record of the child.

(i) The reasonable preference of the child, if the court considers the child to be of sufficient age to express preference.

-3- (j) The willingness and ability of each of the parties to facilitate and encourage a close and continuing parent-child relationship between the child and the other parent or the child and the parents. A court may not consider negatively for the purposes of this factor any reasonable action taken by a parent to protect a child or that parent from sexual assault or domestic violence by the child’s other parent.

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

Related

Fletcher v. Fletcher
526 N.W.2d 889 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1994)
Berger v. Berger
747 N.W.2d 336 (Michigan Court of Appeals, 2008)
Foskett v. Foskett
634 N.W.2d 363 (Michigan Court of Appeals, 2001)
Butler v. Simmons-Butler
863 N.W.2d 677 (Michigan Court of Appeals, 2014)
Demski v. Petlick
873 N.W.2d 596 (Michigan Court of Appeals, 2015)
Key Energy Services, LLC v. Ewing Construction Co., Inc.
2018 ND 121 (North Dakota Supreme Court, 2018)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
Jaclyn Marie Wieland v. Jacob Allen Swisher, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jaclyn-marie-wieland-v-jacob-allen-swisher-michctapp-2025.