Jaligam v. Pochampally

115 So. 3d 694, 2012 La.App. 4 Cir. 1510, 2013 WL 1775371, 2013 La. App. LEXIS 823
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedApril 24, 2013
DocketNo. 2012-CA-1510
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 115 So. 3d 694 (Jaligam v. Pochampally) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Jaligam v. Pochampally, 115 So. 3d 694, 2012 La.App. 4 Cir. 1510, 2013 WL 1775371, 2013 La. App. LEXIS 823 (La. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

EDWIN A. LOMBARD, Judge.

11The Appellant, Vijaydendra Jaligam, seeks review of the judgment of the district court granting the Motion for Relocation of his ex-wife/the Appellee, Radhika Pochampally, and allowing the relocation of his minor children with the Appellee, to Jackson, Mississippi. Finding that the district court did not abuse its discretion in granting the motion, we affirm.

Facts and Procedural History

The parties were married in October 1995, and of that union were born two children, Pranav and Sahana (“the minor children”). During the marriage, the Appellant had an affair with a co-worker, who later filed a paternity suit against him. The Appellant is indeed the father of his co-worker’s child. Upon the Appellee learning of the paternity suit, she left the United States with the minor children and took them to India, where they remained for six months. The Appellant did not [696]*696consent to the minor children being taken to India.

Thereafter, the Appellant filed a Petition for Divorce with Rule for Custody, Return of Children, Exclusive Use of Community Property and Termination of the Community on January 22, 2008. He then filed a second “Petition for Divorce and |2Petermination of Incidental Matters”, Case No. 2008-5342, which was consolidated with his original Petition for Divorce under Case No. 2008-00724. Along with the second Petition for Divorce, the Appellant filed a Writ of Habeas Corpus and Expedited Rule for Custody seeking the return of the children from India.

The Appellee returned with children to New Orleans in late June 2008. Upon her return to New Orleans in June 2008, she filed a Petition for Relief from Domestic Abuse alleging that the Appellant physically abused her. The district court later dismissed her petition with prejudice in July 2008. The district court further rendered an interim judgment granting the parties joint custody and designating the Appellee as the domiciliary parent. Additionally, the Appellant was awarded makeup visitation for the six (6) month time period the minor children were out of the country, and he was awarded regular visitation. The district court further ordered that the parties submit to a custody evaluation with Dr. Karen Van Beyer.

The parties were granted a Judgment of Divorce on August 18, 2008.

In early October 2009, the parties appeared in district court for a custody trial; however, the trial was stayed in response to a request by the Appellant to file a Writ Application to the Court of Appeal, Fourth Circuit. The writ application, Case No. 2009-C-0481, was denied.

On March 5, 2010, the Appellee filed a Temporary Restraining Order on behalf of the minor children allegedly seeking to prevent their paternal grandmother from being in their presence and seeking an order that their paternal grandmother undergo a psychiatric evaluation. The temporary restraining order |awas later issued against the Appellant and the minor children’s paternal grandmother, who was residing with the Appellant.

On March 31, 2010, the Appellee filed a Rule to Suspend or Modify Child Visitation which was set for hearing on April 15, 2010; nevertheless, the Rule was continued without date and never reset to be heard by the Court. Thereafter, in April 2010, the parties entered into a Consent Judgment dissolving the Temporary Restraining Order that issued against the minor children’s paternal grandmother.

Subsequently, the Appellant filed an Emergency Ex Parte Motion to Enforce Visitation, which the district court granted thereby reinstituting the Appellant’s visitation with the minor children.

The district court declared an open custody trial a mistrial in August 2010.

On November 15, 2010, the Appellant filed a motion requesting that the court implement the recommendations of custody evaluator, Dr. Van Beyer, pending the trial on Permanent Custody, and he moved for an updated evaluation. The parties entered into a Consent Judgment wherein they agreed that Dr. Van Beyer would perform an updated custody evaluation. The parties also agreed to an interim holiday visitation schedule, and a regular visitation schedule for the Appellant.

In mid-June 2011, a four-day custody trial was held. The district court rendered an October 2, 2011, judgment awarding the parties joint and shared physical custody of the minor children. The parties were to alternate domiciliary status every other year and Dr. Karen Van Beyer was ap[697]*697pointed as Parenting Coordinator and Custody Facilitator.

At the end of 2011, the Appellee was terminated from Tulane University, where she had done her post-doctorate fellowship and had been employed for ^approximately 8 years. In January 2012, the Appellee began working at the University of Mississippi, in Jackson. . Thereafter, the Appellee filed a Motion for Relocation Authorization to move the permanent residence of the minor children to Jackson, Mississippi, which the Appellant opposed.1 After the relocation trial, on July 31, 20122 , the district court rendered judgment granting the motion and permitting the relocation of the minor children to Jackson.3

The Appellant timely sought review of this judgment and raises three (3) assignments of error on appeal:

1) The district court abused its discretion by refusing to allow relocation and custody expert, Dr. Karen Van Beyer, to give an opinion on relocation and in failing to weigh her expert testimony with the other evidence presented at trial;
2) The district court abused its discretion in failing to apply the evidence as presented to all of the factors of La. Rev.Stat. 9:355.13; and
3) The district court abused its discretion by allowing the relocation of the minor children when the evidence supports that the relocation is not in the best interest of the minor children.

Standard of Review

The district court’s determination in a relocation matter is entitled to great weight and will not be overturned on appeal absent a clear showing of abuse of discretion. H.S.C. v. C.E.C., 05-1490, p. 3 (La.App. 4 Cir. 11/8/06), 944 So.2d 738, 740 (citing Curole v. Curole, 02-1891, p. 4 (La.10/15/02), 828 So.2d 1094, 1096).

The issue to be resolved by a reviewing court is not whether the trier of fact was right or wrong, but whether the fact finder’s conclusion was a reasonable one. Leaf v. Leaf, 05-0592, p. 2 (La.App. 4 Cir. 3/2/06), 929 So.2d 131, 132 (citing Cosse v. Allen-Bradley Co., 601 So.2d 1349, 1351 (La.1992)). Even though an appellate court may feel its own evaluations and inferences are more reasonable than the fact finder’s, reasonable evaluations of credibility and reasonable inferences of fact should not be disturbed upon review where conflict exists in the testimony. Id.

Refusing to Allow Dr. Van Beyer to Testify on Relocation

In his first assignment of error, the Appellant argues that the district court abused its discretion by refusing to allow Dr. Van Beyer to give an opinion on relocation and in failing to weigh her expert testimony with the other evidence presented at trial. The Appellant argues that the [698]*698district court qualified Dr.

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Related

Jaligam v. Pochampally
162 So. 3d 464 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2015)

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Bluebook (online)
115 So. 3d 694, 2012 La.App. 4 Cir. 1510, 2013 WL 1775371, 2013 La. App. LEXIS 823, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jaligam-v-pochampally-lactapp-2013.