Rogers v. Pastureau

117 So. 3d 517, 2012 La.App. 1 Cir. 2008, 2013 WL 1786555, 2013 La. App. LEXIS 850
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedApril 26, 2013
DocketNo. 2012 CU 2008
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 117 So. 3d 517 (Rogers v. Pastureau) 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
Rogers v. Pastureau, 117 So. 3d 517, 2012 La.App. 1 Cir. 2008, 2013 WL 1786555, 2013 La. App. LEXIS 850 (La. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinions

WHIPPLE, C.J.

| ¡.This matter is before us on appeal by Everett and Mallory Pastureau, the father and adoptive mother, respectively, of Mr. Pastureau’s two children, from a judgment granting grandparent visitation rights to Lonnie and Janice Rogers, the parents of the children’s deceased mother, Tara Rogers Pastureau. For the following reasons, we affirm.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Everett Pastureau and Tara Rogers Pastureau were married on August 7, 1999. From this marriage two sons were born, namely, L.P. born on September 3, 2002, and J.P., born on November 7, 2005. Tara and Everett Pastureau resided in a home next door to Tara’s parents, Lonnie and Janice Rogers (Mr. and Mrs. Rogers), on False River. Tara Pastureau was diagnosed with cancer around July 13, 2005, while pregnant with J.P. She passed away on June 1, 2006, when L.P. was three years old and J.P. was six months old. During Tara’s battle with cancer, Everett often stayed with Tara in the hospital, while Mr. and Mrs. Rogers often took care of the children.

After Tara’s death, Everett and the boys continued to live next door to their grandparents. As Everett began traveling to Austin, Texas for work, the children often stayed with Mr. and Mrs. Rogers. The children attended the school where Mrs. Rogers was a pre-kindergarten teacher; the children often ate supper at the Rog-erses’ home; and the Rogerses bought the children clothing and took them to doctors’ appointments.

Everett and the boys briefly moved to Austin in the summer of 2009 but Everett and the children moved back to the Baton Rouge area in May of 2010. Everett married Mallory Pastureau on August 7, 2010.1

| ^However, at some time in September of 2009, Everett and Mr. Rogers got into a heated argument. Everett and Mr. Rogers later offered conflicting testimony as to what exactly transpired, but both agree that the source of the argument was Everett’s anger at a sign made by Mr. Rogers in memory of his daughter and placed on the driveway to the False River property. When someone kept removing the sign, Mr. Rogers confronted Everett about the sign removal. Although Everett denied actually removing the sign, he admitted at trial that the sign made him angry and bothered him because the sign read “Tara Annette Drive,” and this was the name that Tara used prior to marrying Everett. [521]*521As such, Everett felt that the sign erected by Mr. Rogers was disrespectful of him, as, in his view, the sign did not acknowledge Tara as his wife.

Sadly, after this confrontation, the Rog-erses were only allowed to see their grandsons on two occasions: once in February 2010 and once in May 2010. Their communication with their grandsons was also severely limited. Mrs. Rogers’s telephone records from mid-March through early November 2010 showed that twenty-eight phone calls to Everett were never answered, nor were the calls ever returned. On April 22, 2010, Mr. Rogers sent an email to Everett, wherein Mr. Rogers expressed his respect for Everett’s role as a parent; his desire and willingness to extend a “sincere” effort to make things work for the sake of the children; and a request that the grandchildren be allowed to attend his son’s wedding, stating that the children’s presence would help ease the pain of not having Tara there. Everett refused to allow the children to attend the wedding, complaining that the email was “concerning” because he did not want his children to carry the burden of filling a void.2

|4On May 6, 2010, the Rogerses’ other daughter, Allison (who, notably, was also L.P.’s Godmother), sent an email to Everett requesting that she be allowed to see her nephews. Everett responded, in pertinent part, “[T]hese aren’t your boys, they aren’t your family’s boys, they are meant to be with me and we are simply happier since we have removed the negative influences in our lives.”

After virtually every effort to see their grandchildren was refused (or unacknowledged), on December 20, 2010, the Rogers-es filed a petition for grandparent visitation rights with the Family Court for East Baton Rouge Parish. The petition alleged that Mr. and Mrs. Rogers had been very involved in their grandchildren’s lives up until the early months of 2010, when Everett limited and then terminated their contact with the children. The petition alleged that visitation is in the best interest of the children due to the Rogerses’ prior loving and close relationship with the children and the benefits the children would derive from continuing their close and loving relationship with their grandparents.

Everett responded to the petition with allegations that Lonnie Rogers had become violent towards him in front of his two minor sons and that the Rogerses have shown no interest in perpetuating the way that Everett and his new wife, Mallory, want to raise the children. Everett also alleged that the grandparent visitation statutes are unconstitutional.3

After the suit was filed by Mr. and Mrs. Rogers and was pending, Mallory adopted L.P. and J.P., on May 6, 2011, pursuant to a decree rendered by the Juvenile Court of East Baton Rouge Parish.4 Accordingly, the Rogerses then amended their petition for grandparent visitation rights in the pending suit on |s August 3, 2011, to add Mallory Pastureau as an additional defendant by voluntary joinder.

[522]*522Prior to the beginning of the full trial on the merits, the trial judge ordered an interim visitation schedule to cover a ten-week period. Due to scheduling conflicts, the trial was continued beyond the ten weeks provided for in the interim visitation schedule. However, in the interim, the parties continued to have disagreements over the visitation schedule. The Rogers-es filed a rule to show cause, seeking to extend the terms of the interim visitation schedule until the trial on the merits. Mr. and Mrs. Rogers also filed a rule for contempt, alleging that despite the court’s interim orders, they had been denied visitation on “week 10” as provided for in the interim visitation schedule.

The trial on the merits began on August 15, 2011 and resumed on November 21, 2011, at which time the trial judge rendered another interim order. This interim order provided that the Rogerses were to have visitation with their grandchildren on November 23, 2011, and this was to include lunch with Everett and Mallory present. The order also provided that the Rogerses were granted the right to visit with the grandchildren on December 27, 28, 29, and 30, 2011, in the Orlando/Celebration, Florida area.5 As will be discussed more thoroughly below, although Mr. and Mrs. Rogers traveled to Florida with gifts and plans for entertaining the children, these December visits never took place due to the actions and misconduct of the Pastureaus in failing or refusing to facilitate the visitation ordered by the court.

After a bitterly contested trial on the merits, which continued over nine additional days, the trial concluded on June 11, 2012. At trial, extensive testimony and evidence was introduced in support of and in opposition to the limited |nvisitation sought by Mr. and Mrs. Rogers.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Annette Bilello Hagen v. David Hagen
Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2023
In Re: Medical Review Panel George Abrams (D)
Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2023
Jason M. Underwood v. Leigh A. Underwood
Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2021
Todd Anthony Foret, Jr. v. Sarah Gravois Foret
Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2021
Weldon v. Ballow
200 So. 3d 654 (Court of Civil Appeals of Alabama, 2015)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
117 So. 3d 517, 2012 La.App. 1 Cir. 2008, 2013 WL 1786555, 2013 La. App. LEXIS 850, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rogers-v-pastureau-lactapp-2013.