Preda v. Preda

877 So. 2d 617, 2003 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 791, 2003 WL 22417255
CourtCourt of Civil Appeals of Alabama
DecidedOctober 24, 2003
Docket2010822
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 877 So. 2d 617 (Preda v. Preda) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Civil Appeals of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Preda v. Preda, 877 So. 2d 617, 2003 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 791, 2003 WL 22417255 (Ala. Ct. App. 2003).

Opinion

MURDOCK, Judge.

Ioana Naumescu Preda, the mother, appeals from a judgment of the Jefferson Circuit Court, arguing that the trial court abused its discretion by awarding Adrian Preda, the father, additional visitation with the parties’ two children, that it erred in its award of child support, and that it abused its discretion by denying her request for attorney fees.

The parties married in 1992 in Romania. Soon after their marriage, the parties had a son. In 1994, the parties moved to New York, where the mother had been accepted into a hospital residency program. Because of financial constraints, the parties’ son remained in Romania with the maternal grandparents for approximately six months. Thereafter, he spent approximately four to six months each year in the United States with his parents and the remainder of the year in Romania with the maternal grandparents.

In 1995, the parties had a daughter; the daughter lived with the parties for approximately one year and then moved to Romania to live with the maternal grandparents. Also in 1995, the mother’s residency program ended and she accepted employment as a psychiatrist in Texas. The father remained in New York. After the mother moved to Texas, the son moved from Romania to live with her, though he apparently continued to spend a considerable amount of time in Romania as well. The parties’ daughter remained in Romania, though she visited the mother and the father in the United States.

In 1998, the mother and son moved to Birmingham; the daughter also moved at that time from Romania to Birmingham to live with the mother. Also in 1998, the father filed a petition for a divorce in Romania. The parties were divorced pursuant to a judgment entered by a Romanian court in October 1999. The judgment awarded custody of the children to the mother and ordered the father to pay the mother child support equal to approximately $30 per month in United States currency. The judgment made no provision for visitation by the father. However, in July 1998, the mother had executed an affidavit which stated that, upon the entry of a judgment of divorce, the father would [619]*619have visitation “every second and fourth Sunday and Saturday of the month” and “during the scholastic holidays for a period of up to half of the holidays, and up to four weeks of the summer holidays.”

In June 2001, the father filed a petition to enroll the parties’ Romanian divorce judgment in the Jefferson Circuit Court. He attached to his petition a certified copy of that judgment, translated into English. In his petition, the father also requested that the trial court modify the Romanian judgment by awarding joint legal custody of the children to the parties and by awarding to him “standard out-of-state” visitation with the children. The mother filed an answer to the father’s petition, contesting his requests for joint legal custody and for additional visitation. The mother also filed a counterclaim, requesting, in part, that the trial court increase the father’s child-support obligation and award her attorney fees. The mother did not contest the enrollment of the Romanian judgment.

In December 2001, the father filed a motion alleging that the mother had refused to allow him to visit with the children during the Christmas holidays. The father requested that the trial court order the mother to allow him to bring the children to Connecticut for Christmas visitation. The mother denied the father’s allegations. Thereafter, the trial court entered an order granting the father the right to visit with the children in Birmingham for portions of five days during the Christmas holidays. However, because of the father’s work schedule, he was only able to visit with the children on some of the scheduled days.

The trial court held a hearing in January 2002, at which it received both ore tenus and documentary evidence. Thereafter, the trial court entered a judgment awarding the father visitation during the 2002 spring-break holiday, during the 2002 Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, and for three weeks during the summer of 2002. The judgment also awarded the father the right to exercise “reasonable visitation” when he was in Birmingham, provided he gave the mother 48 hours’ notice that he wanted to visit with the children and that the visitation lasted no longer than 48 hours. The trial court ordered that the father’s 2002 spring-break visitation be conducted within 100 miles of Birmingham. It also ordered that, during the father’s 2002 spring-break visitation, the father, the mother, and the children participate in family counseling with Dr. Elizabeth Cates, a clinical psychologist who had examined the children and who had testified at the trial. Further, the trial court ordered that five days of the father’s three-week summer visitation be conducted within 100 miles of Birmingham.

.The judgment provided that beginning in 2003 the father’s visitation rights would include visitation for six weeks each summer, visitation each Christmas for approximately one week beginning on December 26 of each year, visitation during the spring-break holiday of odd-numbered years, visitation during the Thanksgiving holiday of even-numbered years, and reasonable visitation when the father was in Birmingham, provided he gave the mother 48 hours’ notice that he wanted to visit with the children and that the visitation lasted no longer than 48 hours.

In regard to the modification of the father’s child-support obligation, the judgment stated:

“[T]he child support ordered to be paid by the [father] to the [mother] for the support and maintenance of the minor children of the parties be and it hereby is increased to [$750] per month effective February 15, 2002. The child support is not set pursuant to Rule 32 [620]*620Child Support Guidelines, Rules of Judicial Administration due to the travel costs associated with [the father’s] exercising his visitation with the minor children.”

The trial court denied the mother’s request for attorney fees, and it denied all other requested relief.

The trial court amended its judgment to clarify that the father’s visitation during the 2002 Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays must be conducted within a 100-mile radius of Birmingham and to clarify certain other aspects of visitation. The mother appealed.

The mother first argues that the trial court abused its discretion by awarding the father “excessive visitation” with the parties’ two children.1 The mother’s rendition of the evidence in her brief on appeal to this court is basically an attempt to have this court reweigh the evidence, based on all evidence that is potentially favorable to her, and to ignore substantial ore tenus evidence that supports the trial court’s determination as to the father’s visitation rights. There was evidence that the father had visited with the children each year since 1995 and that he talked to the children on the telephone once a week for about one-half hour. The mother emphasizes the limited nature of the father’s visitation with the children; however, there also was evidence indicating that the father had requested additional visitation with the children each year from 1997 through 2001 but that the mother had refused to permit him additional visitation. There was also evidence indicating that the mother had interfered with recent attempts by the father to visit with the children.

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170 So. 3d 697 (Court of Civil Appeals of Alabama, 2015)
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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
877 So. 2d 617, 2003 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 791, 2003 WL 22417255, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/preda-v-preda-alacivapp-2003.