An interesting and, yes, published relocation case was decided by the Superior Court on June 15. D.K.D. v. A.L.C. 2016 Pa. Super 123 involved custody of a child, age 8, who suffers from Pervasive Personality Disorder. The parents separated shortly after the birth of L.D.  They were not divorced until 2015.

L.D. showed signs of language and speech delays at 18 months and the formal diagnosis of an autism spectrum disorder was made at age 3. After separation the parents lived in close proximity to each other but father’s custody was limited to four hours during the week and alternate Saturdays for an additional three hours.  Whether rightly or not, mother appears to have insisted that visits be confined to her home because L.D. did not respond well to changes in location.

In February, 2014, father filed for larger blocks of custody and a holiday and vacation schedule. Mother responded with a request to relocate with L.D. to Florida where her mother resided. In March, 2015 with the trial of the conflicting claims concluded the relocation request was denied, the court noting that it saw the only change to be a possible improvement in mother’s life by living with her mother.  The Allegheny County court’s order also expanded father’s custody over time and instructed mother that L.D. could and should be taken from mother’s home during father’s visits.

The Order of March 23, 2015 prompted mother to file for reconsideration and special relief. One of the ostensible issues was the failure of the order to address custody for mother if she relocated to Florida without L.D.  Mother also sought a new order premised upon her securing a job in Florida with the US Dept. of Veterans Affairs.  Further upping the ante, mother expressed her intention to purchase a home in Florida for mother and L.D. to reside in.  The trial court took the bait, granting reconsideration and re-opening the record to take additional evidence in June, 2015.

The second hearing was the charm and an August 2015 order granted the relocation. This time the trial court found that not only would mother’s life be enhanced but L.D.’s as well.  The factors which previously weighed against relocation: stability for a child with learning/emotional problems, father’s inability to preserve a relationship following a 1,000 mile move and mother’s unjustified need to control father’s visits faded into the mists.  The remaining factors were adjudged neutral, which is to say favoring neither party.  Curiously, the trial court found that mother did a better job of providing for L.D.’s needs but also expressed confidence that father could step up to do more if mother would only permit that.  But the court found that, despite its prior findings, mother would probably be more cooperative if permitted to relocate away from father.

Father appealed and came out swinging with the canard that the trial court had resorted to the long reviled “tender years doctrine”, holding that young children belong with their mothers. The Superior Court axed that argument finding that the record showed no such prejudice.

But, the appellate court was troubled by the sudden shift in mother’s “circumstances” after losing the initial round of the case. Suddenly a $36-41,000 job appeared in Florida and equally suddenly maternal grandmother committed to acquire a $435,000 home for her daughter and L.D. to reside in.  From the opinion, these appear to be the only new facts underlying reconsideration.  Terming the new order of August 2015 a juridical volte face, the Superior Court found that the record did not support the new conclusions of life enhancement for the child.

In denying relocation during Trial 1, the Allegheny County court found that relocation would disrupt stability of school, neighborhood and friends for a child afflicted with a condition that made any adjustments extraordinarily difficult. The trial court also used mother’s professed willingness to leave the child with father in Pennsylvania if relocation were not granted as a tool to rule against father in Trial 2.  Thus, if mother moved and left the child behind, the child would inevitably have to move to father’s neighborhood and enroll in father’s school district.  Father’s offer to move into the child’s existing district if mother relocated without L.D., was not given any weight.  The trial court also found to have ignored the detriment of losing the existing health and behavioral supports in Pennsylvania that L.D. relied upon in addition to his parents.  In addition the Superior Court noted the inconsistency in finding that L.D. needed to preserve his relationship with his father in denying relocation during Trial 1 but finding that alternate weekend visits in Florida by father was an adequate substitute during Trial 2. In a telling observation, Superior Court Judge Bowes writes that aggregating blocks of visits around school breaks and summer is not a viable substitute for the regular twice weekly contact and alternate Saturday visits that L.D. had been accustomed to have with his father.

Mother’s conduct in relocating to Florida without L.D. while the litigation was still underway and sending L.D.’s grandmother back to Pennsylvania to assume primary custody also did not win her any favor. The appellate court saw this choice of not permitting father to have more time while mother was working at her new job in Florida as emblematic of mother’s insistence upon control.  Other inconsistencies also emerged.  Mother moved the Florida professing that she could find no work in Pennsylvania despite her law license.  She also professed that she could not afford to live in her current $290,000 home.  But with the help of her own mother she was able to secure a $435,000 home in Florida with only a $40,000 job and roughly $30,000 in support and alimony from father.  The Superior Court’s review of mother’s job search in the two years prior to her relocation revealed that it was almost exclusively in pursuit of employment in the Sunshine state.  The home acquired with grandmother’s support is two hours away from grandmother’s own home so that the wholesome image of a tri-generational family in one place proved to be illusory.

Finding that mother’s actions “expose her insincerity” the Superior Court reversed the order granting relocation and directed the trial court to hold a hearing to determine how L.D. could be transitioned to live with his father. If mother abandons Florida to resume residence in Pennsylvania the panel suggested she file a petition to modify the now “corrected” custody order.

This case is disturbing in many aspects. Experienced practitioners are used to seeing parents play that “You want more time, I’ll move away” card.  It would appear that even after a year to prepare a relocation case Trial 1 was an abysmal failure for mother; with little evidence of any real benefit to relocation.  But having burned both time and money failing with Trial 1, mother was instantly permitted to “double down” and change the entire theory of her case with new facts.  Reconsideration of a court ruling is supposed to be limited to correcting the evidence or understandings that were of record.  It should never be an invitation to “re-try” a different case employing different facts or theories.  In a world where custody cases are always fluid with ever changing facts, courts need to insist that absent truly compelling circumstances, litigants get one trial at a time.  A child who, by all accounts, fears change and needs stability has endured 2 years of litigation and will now experience two relocations and a change of primary custody because mother decided not to line up a credible case until after she had lost the first trial.  Both the bench and the bar need to realize that the quest for complete records and best interests can often produce enormous backlogs, huge legal bills and instability for the very children we are all tasked to protect.  The Superior Court appears to have done the right thing in reversing this chain of errors.