Robert Gordon, Guardian Ad Litem on Behalf of G.J.E., I.G.E., and S.J.E. Amy E. Schramm F/K/A Amy E. Epperly v. Bradley G. Epperly

504 S.W.3d 836, 2016 Mo. App. LEXIS 961
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedSeptember 27, 2016
DocketWD78959, WD78964
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 504 S.W.3d 836 (Robert Gordon, Guardian Ad Litem on Behalf of G.J.E., I.G.E., and S.J.E. Amy E. Schramm F/K/A Amy E. Epperly v. Bradley G. Epperly) 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
Robert Gordon, Guardian Ad Litem on Behalf of G.J.E., I.G.E., and S.J.E. Amy E. Schramm F/K/A Amy E. Epperly v. Bradley G. Epperly, 504 S.W.3d 836, 2016 Mo. App. LEXIS 961 (Mo. Ct. App. 2016).

Opinion

LISA WHITE HARDWICK, JUDGE

Robert Gordon, guardian ad litem (“GAL”), and Amy E. Schramm (“Mother”), appeal the judgment modifying custody of Mother and Bradley G. Epperly’s (“Father”) three children. The GAL and Mother contend the court erred in denying their motions for change' of judge; failing to make findings detailing the factors that resulted in the court’s rejection of the GAL’s proposed custodial arrangement; and granting Father joint legal and joint physical custody. For reasons explained herein, we affirm.

Factual and Procedural History 1

Mother and’ Father were married in 2001. They had three children: a daughter, *840 born on February 13, 2003; a son, born on September 16, 2004; and a son, born on July 13, 2006.

Mother and Father’s marriage was dissolved on August 31, 2006. In the dissolution judgment, the court approved Mother and Father’s agreed-upon parenting plan, which provided for Mother to have sole physical custody and the parties to share joint legal custody. With regard to Father’s visitation, the parenting plan stated that the children “shall reside with [Mother] and for the time being, given the tender years of the minor children, [Father] shall have weekly visits in Kansas City, Missouri under the supervision of [Mother] at a minimum of 1 day per week as agreed by the parties.” The court ordered Father to pay Mother $1000 per month in child support.

At the time of the dissolution, Father was working for the Army National Guard. He served in Afghanistan from September 2009 to September 2010 and received several awards and commendations. From 2006 to 2011, when Father was not deployed overseas, Mother allowed Father to have some unsupervised visitation with the children in public places. Mother never allowed Father overnight visitation with the children, and she did not allow him visitation during major holidays except for a couple of Christmas Eves and a Memorial Day and/or Labor Day weekend. In late 2011 and 2012, paternal grandparents supervised Father’s visits with the children at Mother’s request.

Father has a history of problems with alcohol. He sought in-patient treatment for his drinking in 2005 and 2012. Father last drank to intoxication in April 2012 and has not consumed any alcohol since March 2014. He regularly attends Alcoholics Anonymous and receives counseling. There was no evidence that Father ever drank around the children, and he has never been cited for an alcohol-related offense.

In November 2012, Father filed a motion to modify the dissolution judgment to allow the parties to share joint physical custody of the children. After Father filed his motion to modify, Mother refused to allow paternal grandparents to supervise Father’s visits and insisted that she supervise them.

In April 2013, the court appointed Dana Outlaw as guardian ad litem for the minor children. Also in April 2013, Father filed a motion to lift the restrictions on his parenting time or, in the alternative, to substitute his present wife, whom he married in March 2013, as supervisor. Following a hearing and apparently upon the parties’ agreement, 2 on July 19, 2013, the court ordered that Mother be removed as supervisor of Father’s visitation and that Father be granted, at a minimum, weekly visitation with the children, to be supervised by paternal grandparents. Mother then filed a counter-motion to modify in which she *841 asked the court to award her both sole physical and sole-legal custody.

Mother subsequently stopped allowing paternal grandparents to supervise Father’s visitation. She offered Father supervised visitation only through the Layne Project, the Guardian Program, or therapists, at Father’s expense. 3 Also, Mother requested that Father sign a contract, which contained restrictions on his visitation, before she would allow him to have visitation. On April 2, 2014, Father filed a family access motion. This motion was given a separate case number from Father’s motion to modify. Nevertheless, the court entered an order stating that Father’s family access motion would be heard at the trial setting on the custody modification case.

Trial on Father’s motion to modify, Mother’s counter-motion to modify, and Father’s family access motion was held on May 27-28, 2014. 4 Father, as movant, proceeded first and called two witnesses, while, the guardian ad litem called two expert witnesses out of turn. By the end of the day on May 28, 2014, Father had not yet rested, and Mother had not yet called any witnesses. The case was continued to December 11, 2014, for further evidence.

On June 18, 2014, Father filed a second family access motion. In this motion, he alleged that he had not been allowed visitation with his children since January 19, 2014. He requested an immediate hearing on the motion. The court set the hearing on the motion for August 20, 2014. Before the hearing,.Mother filed'a motion to consolidate the family access case with the modification case. Mother also filed a motion to appoint the guardian ad litem from the modification case to serve as guardian ad litem in the family access case, but the motion appears to have been - erroneously filed in the original dissolution case.

On August 20, 2014, Mother and Father appeared for the hearing on the family access case. Having not been made a party to the family access case, the guardian ad litem did not appear. According to Mother, the court asked counsel for Mother and Father if they wished to speak in chambers. Mother contends that her counsel told the court’s clerk that she did not want to speak in chambers but wanted the proceedings to be on the record, while Father’s counsel indicated that he wanted to speak in chambers. According to Father, however, the in-chambers conference was “an accommodation to Mother’s counsel.” The in-chambers conference lasted two hours. The guardian ad litem was not present, and no record of the in-chambers conference was made.

Mother asserts that, in chambers, her counsel argued to the court that it could not proceed or take up any issues in the custody modification case without the guardian ad litem present. She also noted that only the family access case had been noticed for hearing. Additionally, she argued that the court’s refusal to consolidate the custody modification case and the family access case subjected the parties to conflicting judgments. According to Mother, the court indicated to counsel that it was dismissing Father’s second family access motion on the court’s own motion and *842 that the parties eould either agree to supervised visitation through the Connections Supervised Visitation Program or Mother could supervise Father’s visitation with the minor children as set forth in the original dissolution judgment. According to Father, Mother “refused all suggested solutions offered by [the court].”

After the in-chambers conference, the court went on the record and stated that it was dismissing Father’s family access case, thereby rendering moot Mother’s motion to appoint a guardian ad litem and her motion to consolidate the case with the custody modification case.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
504 S.W.3d 836, 2016 Mo. App. LEXIS 961, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/robert-gordon-guardian-ad-litem-on-behalf-of-gje-ige-and-sje-moctapp-2016.