Wyckoff v. Wyckoff

820 So. 2d 350, 2002 WL 491038
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedApril 3, 2002
Docket2D00-5342
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 820 So. 2d 350 (Wyckoff v. Wyckoff) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wyckoff v. Wyckoff, 820 So. 2d 350, 2002 WL 491038 (Fla. Ct. App. 2002).

Opinion

820 So.2d 350 (2002)

Terry Lynn WYCKOFF, Appellant,
v.
Douglas M. WYCKOFF, Appellee.

No. 2D00-5342.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Second District.

April 3, 2002.

*351 J.L. "Ray" LeGrande of LeGrande & LeGrande, P.A., Fort Myers, for Appellant.

David M. Caldevilla of de la Parte & Gilbert, P.A., Tampa, for Appellee.

*352 ALTENBERND, Judge.

The Former Wife, Terry Lynn Wyckoff, appeals a series of orders granting the petition of the Former Husband, Douglas M. Wyckoff, to modify their final judgment of dissolution of marriage. The orders awarded the Former Husband the primary residential responsibility of the minor children and required the Former Wife to pay child support. The Former Wife also appeals the trial court's decision to deny her an award of attorney's fees pursuant to section 61.16, Florida Statutes (2000). Because the Former Husband failed to meet the extraordinary burden required to support a change in custody, and because the trial court abused its discretion in refusing to award the Former Wife attorney's fees, we reverse.

Mr. and Mrs. Wyckoff were married in 1993. Mr. Wyckoff was a practicing attorney during the marriage and continues to practice law. Mrs. Wyckoff worked as a waitress until the parties' children were born. She returned to this employment after the parties separated. The parties have two children, who are now six and eight years old. In March 1998, the parties entered into a marital settlement agreement that was incorporated into a final judgment of dissolution of marriage. This agreement will be described in further detail later in this opinion, but it essentially gave the Former Wife primary residential responsibility of the children.

In August 1998, approximately five months later, the Former Husband filed a petition for modification of the final judgment. He sought primary residential custody of the two minor children and termination of his support obligations. After a three-day trial held in June 2000, the trial court granted the petition. Although it is not clear from our record, it appears the trial court applied a "best interests" standard to evaluate whether there should be a change in the custody of these children, as opposed to the "extraordinary burden" test set forth in Gibbs v. Gibbs, 686 So.2d 639 (Fla. 2d DCA 1996). We conclude that the extraordinary burden test applies, and viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the Former Husband, the Former Husband did not meet the burden of proof necessary to support a change in custody of the children.

In Gibbs, this court articulated the "extraordinary burden test" a parent must meet to compel a court-ordered change in custody:

First, the party seeking to modify a custody decree must plead and establish that circumstances have substantially changed since the final judgment. This is required to overcome the legal doctrine of res judicata, and probably reflects a general belief that stability is good for children. Second, the petitioner must establish that the change has such an important impact on the child that the court is justified in imposing a change of custody in the "best interests" of the child. Although the "best interests" aspect of this test involves a consideration of the same general factors that are used to make an initial decision, the trial court must understand that the analysis in a modification proceeding is substantially different from when the initial child custody decision is made in the dissolution because the presumption in favor of the custodial parent in the modification proceeding can only be overcome by satisfying an extraordinary burden.
The following review of the cases describing the extraordinary burden test suggests a change of custody is appropriate when, after a review of all of the factors enumerated in section 61.13(3), Florida Statutes, the trial court finds that a change in custody will so clearly *353 promote or improve the child's well-being to such an extent that any reasonable parent would understand that maintaining the status quo would be detrimental to the child's overall best interests. This test involves more than a decision that the petitioning parent's home would be "better" for the child, and requires a determination that there is some significant inadequacy in the care provided by the custodial parent. At this extraordinary level, the trial court may veto a custodial parent's desire to retain custody of the child.

686 So.2d at 641-42.

In this case, the Former Husband argued that the Gibbs standard does not apply, and instead that a "best interests" standard applicable to an original custody determination was appropriate. He presented two rationales for this argument: (1) that the original judgment established a rotating custody arrangement and that the burden to modify joint or rotating custody should be best interests; or (2) that the Former Wife somehow agreed to a lower burden of proof, either by agreeing to have a court-appointed psychologist consider and report upon the best interests of the children in the modification proceeding, or by signing a marital settlement agreement that failed to designate a primary residential parent. Under the facts of this case, we find no merit in these positions.

First, the parties' marital settlement agreement, as incorporated into the final judgment of dissolution, did not establish a joint or rotating custody arrangement. The provision on the custody of the children provided:

The children will reside with the Wife when not with the Husband. The children will reside with the Husband Tuesday and Friday nights during Wife's week and Tuesday night and from 6:00 p.m. on Fridays until 3:00 p.m. on Sundays during Husband's week. The parties agree to cooperate, in the children's best interests, in resolving conflicts and jointly celebrating birthdays, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, school holidays and other appropriate events. The children will reside with the Husband for two (2) weeks during each summer.

The agreement also required the Former Husband to pay child support.[1]

Although this agreement is ambiguous, at the modification trial each party provided parol evidence describing the arrangement as a "traditional" primary residence arrangement, wherein the Former Wife had primary residential care of the children and the Former Husband had every Tuesday evening and alternating weekends. Indeed, in the proceedings before the trial court, the Former Husband never argued that the marital settlement agreement provided for joint or rotating custody. In fact, the order granting the Former Husband's petition to modify the judgment stated: "The parenting schedule described in the parties' marital settlement agreement shall now be reversed." If the schedule described was a joint or rotating custody arrangement, this modification would be of no practical effect.[2]

*354 Second, we conclude the Former Wife did not agree to a lower burden of proof for this modification proceeding, either in her stipulation to allow the court-appointed psychologist to evaluate the best interests of the children or because she signed a marital settlement agreement that failed to specifically identify her as the "primary residential parent." With respect to the stipulation to appoint a psychologist, the stipulation did not address the burden of proof at trial.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
820 So. 2d 350, 2002 WL 491038, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wyckoff-v-wyckoff-fladistctapp-2002.