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Family Law Supreme Court Slip Opinion

by Greenlee, Rebecca

 

SC 20882 - R. H. v. M. H. ("The sole issue in this appeal is whether the trial court improperly delegated its judicial authority when it gave the plaintiff father, R. H., the authority to decide the nature and scope of the visitation his ex-spouse, the defendant mother, M. H., could have with their minor child, R. Specifically, the trial court’s visitation order provided that, if, ‘‘at any time,’’ the plaintiff ‘‘reasonably determines’’ that R was negatively impacted by the defendant’s visitation, the plaintiff may, among other things, ‘‘suspend’’ the defendant’s visitation with R. The defendant appeals from the trial court’s decision to grant the plaintiff’s motion for modification of the order of custody over the parties’ minor children. The defendant claims that the trial court improperly delegated its judicial authority to the plaintiff when it gave him the authority to suspend her visitation with R if the plaintiff reasonably determined that the unsupervised visits were causing R to endure negative behavioral or emotional consequences. Although the trial court attempted to balance the interests of the parties and the children, we conclude that the trial court improperly delegated its judicial authority to the plaintiff. Accordingly, we reverse that part of the trial court’s order1 modifying custody")