Schneider v. Schneider

115 So. 3d 1279, 12 La.App. 3 Cir. 1241, 2013 WL 3064647, 2013 La. App. LEXIS 1251
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJune 20, 2013
DocketNo. 12-1241
StatusPublished

This text of 115 So. 3d 1279 (Schneider v. Schneider) 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
Schneider v. Schneider, 115 So. 3d 1279, 12 La.App. 3 Cir. 1241, 2013 WL 3064647, 2013 La. App. LEXIS 1251 (La. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinions

PICKETT, Judge.

liThe appellant, Jerianne McPherson Schneider (Jerianne), appeals the judgment of the trial court awarding joint custody of Jon Louis Schneider to her and his father, David Schneider (David), on the condition that she relocate to Texas, and setting other conditions.

PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Jon Louis was born on April 12, 2006, in Alexandria, Louisiana, the issue of the brief marriage of Jerianne and David. On April 18, 2006, Jerianne filed a petition for divorce in Rapides Parish, where she was residing with her parents. In the petition for divorce, Jerianne asked that the court award joint custody of Jon Louis and name her as domiciliary parent. At the same time, David filed for divorce in Texas, where the couple had lived during their on-again off-again relationship that culminated in marriage on February 3, 2006, after discovering Jerianne was pregnant with David’s son.

David originally challenged the jurisdiction of the Louisiana court to litigate the custody claim under the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act, La.R.S. 13:1700-1724 (now repealed and replaced with the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act, La.R.S. 17:1801-1842). The trial court denied his peremptory exception of lack of subject matter jurisdiction or, in the alternative, dilatory exception of inconvenient forum. This court denied David’s application for supervisory writs in an unpublished writ disposition. Schneider v. Schneider, 06-1433 (La.App. 3 Cir. 12/19/06).

The trial court signed a judgment of divorce on January 29, 2007. David filed a rule for interim visitation on February 9, 2007. The court entered an interim order allowing David to have visitation with Jon Louis every other weekend in Alexandria [1281]*1281for eight hours on Saturday and four hours on Sunday. Following a 12recommendation of Dr. John Simoneaux, the court-appointed custody evaluator, that David should not have overnight visitation until Jon Louis was three or four years old, this arrangement remained unchanged until November 2009.

The trial court set a hearing on the issue of overnight visitation for Monday, December 21, 2009. David exercised his visitation with Jon Louis on December 19 and 20. On the evening of December 20, Jon Louis made a statement to his aunt, Jeni McPherson, alleging that David Schneider had sexually abused him. Jerianne consulted with her attorney, who recommended that she notify Child Protection Services. The December 21, 2009 hearing was continued, and the court was informed of the allegations by early January 2010. At some point, the trial court recommended that Jon Louis should see a trained therapist. Jon Louis began seeing Mary Girard, a licensed social worker, on December 28, 2009. This relationship became critical to the future trajectory of this litigation.

At a January 4, 2010 hearing, the court ordered that David be granted supervised visitation with Jon Louis on alternating weekends to be supervised at all times by David’s parents. Jon Louis made another allegation that his father sexually abused him on February 17, 2010. On a motion by Jerianne, the trial court suspended David’s visitation with Jon Louis on February 24, 2010. The trial court ordered the parties to be re-evaluated by Dr. Simo-neaux. A hearing on the rule for visitation was set for April 21, 2010, which was continued to August 8, 2010. Dr. Simoneaux presented his new recommendation to the court in June 2010, wherein he suggested gradually increasing visitation with David “fairly quickly.” In his report, Dr. Simo-neaux stated that he did not believe that David sexually abused Jon Louis. Ms. Girard, however, disagreed and asked Dr. Simoneaux to reconsider his findings in a meeting on July 14, 2010. Dr. Simoneaux refused. On July 21, 2010, Jerianne filed a motion to remove Dr. |sSimoneaux, alleging he was biased against her because her uncle, state Senator Joe McPherson, blocked his appointment to the Louisiana State Board of Examiners of Psychologists. On August 4, 2010, Jerianne filed a motion for an independent custody evaluation. The hearings on these various motions were originally set for September 7, 2010, with the trial on the rule for visitation set for November 17. At David’s request, the hearing and the trial were continued without date, and a status conference was held on November 17.

As a result of this status conference, a consent judgment was issued ordering Dr. Jonathan Haag be appointed to recommend an interim visitation plan to the court; ordering Dr. Alicia Pellegrin be appointed to replace Dr. Simoneaux and perform a custody evaluation; and setting a hearing for January 28, 2011 to set interim visitation pending a full custody trial. After the January hearing (which was reset for January 81), the trial court appointed Dr. Kathryn Kuehnle as an independent custody evaluator on February 22, 2011. In this same order, the trial court granted David supervised visitation at the Whistle Stop in Lake Charles every other Saturday. At the request of Dr. Kuehnle, the parties were later ordered to undergo psychosexual evaluations with Dr. Hugh Kirkpatrick.

On May 20, 2011, David filed an “Expedited Rule to Modify Physical Custody Schedule and Regime to Sole Custody, for Contempt and Compensatory Time Rights per LSA-R.S. 9:436 and/or C.C. Article 136.1, for Attorney Fees, Motion to Com[1282]*1282pel Execution of Medical Releases, and Promised Productions, Rule to Modify Custody Evaluation Order.” In this pleading, David requested increased visitation with Jon Louis based on Dr. Haag’s report. In his report, Dr. Haag concluded that David was not a danger to his son and that unsupervised overnight visitation could begin almost immediately. He also suggested that after a couple of local visits, Jon Louis could travel to Texas to visit his father. A hearing |4 on this rule was originally set for June 14, 2011, but was apparently continued. Sometime thereafter, Jon Louis began overnight visitation in Kingwood, Texas, with David, though there is no court order or evidence of agreement of the parties in the record.

On July 27, 2011, Ms. Girard filed a motion to have her company, Life Solutions, Inc., appointed as Jon Louis’s court-appointed counselor. The motion was originally set for hearing on August 15, 2011, but was later continued to September 26, 2011. In response to Ms. Girard’s motion, David filed a peremptory exception of no right of action or no cause of action and a dilatory exception of unauthorized use of summary proceedings.

On September 21, 2011, Jerianne filed a “Petition for Protection from Abuse” against David. She alleged that Jon Louis told her on the way home from visiting his father in Texas that David had sexually abused him again. She reported the allegations to authorities in both Louisiana and Texas. At a September 27, 2011 hearing, the court continued the hearing on the temporary restraining order included in this petition to October 21, 2011, and in the interim, ordered that David’s unsupervised visitation continue. The court also ordered the parties to participate in mediation before February 16, 2012, and set a pre-trial conference for February 17, 2012. After Jerianne failed to deliver Jon Louis to Texas for David’s next scheduled visitation, David filed an amended rule for contempt against Jerianne on October 3, 2011. On November 3, 2011, the Petition for Protection from Abuse was dismissed without prejudice on Jerianne’s motion. On November 10, 2011, Jerianne reported to authorities that Jon Louis had made a fourth allegation of abuse.

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Bluebook (online)
115 So. 3d 1279, 12 La.App. 3 Cir. 1241, 2013 WL 3064647, 2013 La. App. LEXIS 1251, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/schneider-v-schneider-lactapp-2013.