Wojciechowski v. Clark

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF FLORIDA FIFTH DISTRICT NOT FINAL UNTIL TIME EXPIRES TO FILE MOTION FOR REHEARING AND DISPOSITION THEREOF IF FILED ZBIG WOJCIECHOWSKI, Appellant, v. Case No. 5D14-156 NICOLE CLARK, Appellee. ________________________________/ Decision filed March 24, 2016 Appeal from the Circuit Court for Osceola County, C. Jeffery Arnold, Judge.

Elizabeth Siano Harris, of Law Offices of E.S. Harris, P.A., Titusville, for Appellant.

James M. Campbell, of The Orlando Family Firm, Orlando, for Appellee.

PER CURIAM.

AFFIRMED.

SAWAYA and WALLIS, JJ., concur.

BERGER, J., concurs specially with opinion.

BERGER, J., concurring specially. 5D14-156 The overwhelming evidence in this child custody case establishes that the child's mother is, at the very least, a drug addict,1 which is why I could not disagree more with the trial court’s decision to grant her majority time-sharing. Nevertheless, my disagreement does not warrant reversal.

Trial courts are afforded broad discretion in child custody cases. See Schwieterman v. Schwieterman, 114 So. 3d 984, 987 (Fla. 5th DCA 2012) (citing Miller v. Miller, 842 So. 2d 168, 169 (Fla. 1st DCA 2003)). As such, we apply a “reasonableness” test to determine whether the trial judge abused his discretion.

Canakaris v. Canakaris, 382 So. 2d 1197, 1203 (Fla. 1980). Under this test, “[i]f reasonable men could differ as to the propriety of the action taken by the trial court, then the action is not unreasonable and there can be no finding of an abuse of discretion.” Id. Because I cannot conclude that no reasonable man would have taken the view of the trial court, I am compelled to concur with the majority decision to affirm.