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")