McAlister v. McAlister

747 A.2d 390, 2000 Pa. Super. 42, 2000 Pa. Super. LEXIS 125, 2000 WL 174893
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedFebruary 16, 2000
Docket672 EDA 1999
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 747 A.2d 390 (McAlister v. McAlister) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
McAlister v. McAlister, 747 A.2d 390, 2000 Pa. Super. 42, 2000 Pa. Super. LEXIS 125, 2000 WL 174893 (Pa. Ct. App. 2000).

Opinions

STEVENS, J.:

¶ 1 Appellant Daniel McAlister (Father) appeals from an Order granting the Petition for Modification of a custody agreement filed by Appellee Mary Beth McAlis-ter (Mother). We vacate and remand.

¶ 2 The trial court succinctly stated the pertinent facts of this case as follows:

[Father] and [Mother] were married on August 16, 1986 and divorced on November 26, 1996. Two children were born of the marriage, [K.M. and M.M.], who are 11 and 9, respectively. The parties reached an arrangement in 1994 in which they would have a shared custody arrangement with each parent having the children half the week and alternate] weekends. That agreement was adopted as an Order of Court on June 1, 1994.
Both parties presently reside in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania and the chil[391]*391dren attend school there. Father works in Teterboro, New Jersey and commutes approximately two and [one-half] hours to and from work each day. Mother works in Madison, New Jersey and has a three hour commute to and from work each day. In 1997, Mother filed a Petition for Modification of the custody agreement. The basis of her Petition was that she wanted to relocate to New Jersey so that she could reside one-half hour closer to her workplace. She argued that this shorter commute to work for her would be in the best interests of the children, ostensibly because she could spend more time with them before and after work. At that time, her petition was denied as not having met the test set forth in Gruber v. Gruber, [400 Pa.Super. 174] 583 A.2d 434 (Pa.Super.1990).
On May 19,1998, Mother filed another Petition for Modification of the custody agreement. This second Petition was nearly identical to the previous one in that Mother desires to relocate to New Jersey to be closer to her work place. However, now she is engaged, her fiancé lives in Princeton, New Jersey!,] and they have contracted to buy a house in a nearby community [that is approximately one and a half hours from East Stroudsburg].

Trial Court Opinion, 1/29/99, at 1-2.

¶ 3 The trial court held an evidentiary hearing on Mother’s Petition on November 24, 1998, after which the trial court granted Mother permission to relocate to New Jersey with K.M. and M.M. The trial court entered an Order, which stated in pertinent part as follows:

3. [Father] and [Mother] shall share physical custody of their children, [K.M. and M.M.], with Mother having primary physical custody during the school year, under and subject to Father’s periods of partial custody on alternate weekends from Friday after school through Sunday at 8:30 p.m. beginning February 5, 1999; awarding Mother primary physical custody during the school year, subject to Father’s periods of partial custody on alternate weekends.
4. Father shall have primary physical custody during the summer school recess beginning at 6:00 p.m. the day following the last day of school through 6:00 p.m. on the Sunday prior to the first day of school[.]

Trial Court Order, 1/29/99, at 10-11. Father then filed this timely appeal.

¶ 4 On appeal, Father raises the following contentions:

(1) Mother failed to establish that her relocation would significantly and directly improve the quality of the children’s lives;
(2) Mother failed to establish the proper motive behind her decision to relocate the children; and
(3) the trial court failed to provide a substitute visitation arrangement which will ensure a continuing and meaningful relationship between the children and Father.

¶ 5 When reviewing a trial court’s custody order, we are bound by the trial court’s factual findings but not by the deductions made or inferences drawn therefrom. Swope v. Swope, 455 Pa.Super. 587, 689 A.2d 264 (1997). We will interfere with the trial court’s conclusions only if they are unreasonable in view of the trial court’s factual findings. Id. The paramount concern in a child custody case involving the relocation of one or both parents remains the best interests of the child. Clapper v. Harvey, 716 A.2d 1271 (Pa.Super.1998). A determination of a child’s best interests is done on a case-by-case basis, and must be premised upon consideration of all factors that legitimately affect the child’s physical, intellectual, moral and spiritual wellbeing. Alfred v. Braxton, 442 Pa.Super. 381, 659 A.2d 1040 (1995).

[392]*392¶ 6 Father essentially is asserting that the trial court erred in finding that Mother met the standards enunciated in Gruber v. Gruber, 400 Pa.Super. 174, 583 A.2d 434 (1990). In Gruber, our Court stated that, in every relocation dispute, the trial court must consider:

[T]he custodial parent’s desire to exercise autonomy over basic decisions that will directly affect his or her life and that of the children; a child’s strong interest in maintaining and developing a meaningful relationship with the noncustodial parent; the interest of the non-custodial parent in sharing in the love and rearing of his or her children; and finally, the state’s interest in protecting the best interests of the children.

Id. at 439. Our Court also set forth the following three factors relevant to the determination of whether a custodial parent may relocate to a geographical distance away from the non-custodial parent:

(1) The potential advantages of the proposed move, economic or otherwise, and the likelihood that [the] move would improve substantially the quality of life for the custodial parent and the children and is not the result of a momentary whim on the part of the custodial parent;
(2) [t]he integrity of the motive of both the custodial and non-custodial parent in either seeking the move or seeking to prevent it; and
(3) [t]he availability of realistic, substitute arrangements which will adequately foster an ongoing relationship between the child and the noncustodial parent.

Id.

¶ 7 Rather recently, in Thomas v. Thomas, 739 A.2d 206, 1999 Pa.Super. 249 (en banc), this Court held that the factors enumerated in Gruber should be considered in cases where the parties share equal physical custody and one party seeks permission to relocate out of the state. This Court specifically held that when a court is “reviewing a request for change of custody and relocation in the context of an equal shared custody arrangement .... [Gruber’s ] mandates that the court is to focus on the primary physical custody family, and what is ‘advantageous to the primary unit is obviously in the best interests of the children,’ is not applicable....” Thomas, 739 A.2d at 210-211. Rather, in the context of an equal shared custody arrangement, “there exists two primary family units, and, as such, ...

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McAlister v. McAlister
747 A.2d 390 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2000)

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Bluebook (online)
747 A.2d 390, 2000 Pa. Super. 42, 2000 Pa. Super. LEXIS 125, 2000 WL 174893, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mcalister-v-mcalister-pasuperct-2000.