Moyers v. Lindenbusch

530 S.W.3d 646
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedOctober 24, 2017
DocketWD 80588
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 530 S.W.3d 646 (Moyers v. Lindenbusch) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Moyers v. Lindenbusch, 530 S.W.3d 646 (Mo. Ct. App. 2017).

Opinion

Karen King Mitchell, Judge

Melissa A. Moyers (Mother) appeals the judgment of the Circuit Court of Cole County, Missouri, granting the.Motion to Modify Judgment and Decree of Dissolution filed by Martin A. Lindenbusch (Father). The trial court modified the original decree by awarding sole legal custody and primary placement of the parties’ three minor children to Father but leaving the parents with joint physical custody of the children. On appeal, Mother claims the trial court erred: (1) in determining that there was substantial evidence on which to conclude, that the modification was in the best interests of the children and (2) in finding that Mother was engaged in a “po-lyamorous or polygamous”1 relationship. We affirm.

Background2

The parties married on May 17, 2003, in Cole County, Missouri. Three children were born to the marriage: Andrew Xavier Lindenbusch, born April 28, 2004; Meghan Elizabeth Lindenbusch, born December 21, 2005; and Annika Elisé Lindenbusch, born May 22, 2008. In 2012, the parties filed cross-petitions for dissolution of marriage in the Circuit Court of Colé County, Missouri. On February 20, 2013, the trial court held a hearing on the petitions. Following the hearing, the court made a docket entry dissolving the parties’ marriage and instructing the parties to submit proposed judgments and parenting plans. While the case was pending, Mother filed a Motion to Re-Open the Record. The court granted the motion and set the matter for a second hearing. The parties subsequently notified the court that they had reached an agreement resolving the disputed issues.

On June 14, 2013, the trial court entered a Judgment and Decree of Dissolution of Marriage, awarding the parties joint legal and physical custody of the children in accordance with the parties’ proposed Joint Parenting Plan, which the court found to be in the best interests of the children. According to the Joint Parenting Plan, Mother was permitted to relocate the children to Colorado, and Father was granted specific periods of parenting time during holiday breaks and summers.

Mother and the children moved to Rye, Colorado, in July 2013. There, they lived with Kenneth Moyers (Ken), his wife Stephanie Moyers (Stephanie), and Ken and Stephanie’s three children.3 Ken and Stephanie divorced in September 2013, although they continued to share the same house. Mother and Ken were married in October 2013, and they later had a son together.

By letter dated April 15, 2016, Mother notified Father of her intention to relocate the children to the Austin, Texas area on or around June 15, 2016. Mother identified Ken’s desire to change employment as the primary reason for the move, although she noted that, as of the date of the letter, he had not yet found employment. Mother subsequently sent Father a letter, dated May 12, 2016, in which she provided her new residential address in Texas, effective June 1, 2016.

On May 31, 2016, Father filed a Motion to Prohibit Petitioner’s Proposed Relocation of the Residence of the Minor Children and a Motion to Modify Custody, which Father later amended on June 7, 2016. In his Motion, Father requested sole legal and physical custody of the children with reasonable rights of visitation in favor of Mother. On October 4, 2016, Father moved for the appointment of a guardian ad litem (GAL), which the trial court granted.

On January 25, 2017, the trial court conducted a bench trial, which lasted the better part of a day and included testimony from Mother, Father, Ken, and the GAL. Father intended to remain in the Jefferson City area and re-enroll the children in St. Joseph Catholic School in Jefferson City, which they had attended before the parties’ dissolution. Both Father, and Mother have extended family in Missouri, and Father indicated that he would allow the children to visit Mother’s family.

Around the time of the dissolution, Father lost his job due to a DWI conviction. Father agreed to allow Mother to relocate to Colorado with the children because she represented that she had received a written job offer from Solo Sky Ranch in Rye, Colorado, at a yearly salary of $60,000. But Mother was never actually employed by Solo Sky Ranch, as there was no job for her there. Ken owns Solo Sky Ranch, and Mother’s motivation for moving to Colorado was to marry him. The written job offer Mother received was signed by Stephanie, using her middle and maiden name. According to Ken, the job offer was “one piece of the puzzle” that would allow Mother to relocate to Colorado with the children.

After moving to Colorado, Mother interfered with Father’s attempts to communicate with the children. Mother refused to load Skype on her son’s iPad so he could communicate with Father; her stated reason being that she had paid for the iPad. Mother cancelled her son’s email account when she discovered that Father was communicating with the son via e-mail. And Mother often did not answer her cell phone when Father called to speak to the children. On at- least one occasion, Mother recorded a telephone call' between Father and the children, and on other 'occasions she had the children talk to Father on speaker phone so she could listen to. their conversations. She also interfered with Father’s ability to participate meaningfully in one child’s First Communion. Ken threatened to call the police if Father showed up at the house to see the children. Mother denied Father’s request to visit with the children in Colorado on at least one occasion, and she interfered with his plans to spend’ time with the children in Missouri on another.

Mother made it difficult for the parties to co-parent. She refused to cooperate with Father to facilitate exchanges of the children, including dropping the children off- a day- early without prior notice to Father, demanding he return the children a day early, and refusing to allow Father 'to change the children’s return ■ flights to a more convenient time. Father learned about injuries to two of the children from them, and the parties disagreed about the course of treatment. Mother decided to stop raising the children in the Catholic faith, as mandated by the parties’ Joint Parenting Plan, without discussing the issue with Father. Mother refused to allow Father to obtain passports for the children so he could travel out of the country with them. The parties were unable to reach an agreement on whether their son should repeat third grade and on whether the children should attend therapy.

Mother was not honest with Father regarding issues affecting the children.' In addition to the fabricated job offer in Colorado, Mother misled Father about the timing of her marriage to-Ken. Though she told Father she remarried in July 2013, she and Ken did not- actually marry until October 2013. Mother also was not honest with Father about the nature of an out-of-state funeral she attended with the children. Mother told Father the funeral was for Ken’s grandmother, when, in fact, the service was for Stephanie’s grandmother. During her testimony, Mother denied that Ken had told her children to call him “father,” but when the GAL had asked her about that prior to -trial, she had admitted it was true. The real reason for the move to Texas -was' Stephanie’s, not Ken’s, employment there. Ken did not secure employment in Texas until. November 2016, four months after the move. ■

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Bluebook (online)
530 S.W.3d 646, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/moyers-v-lindenbusch-moctapp-2017.