Hansen v. Todnem
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Hansen v. Todnem
Opinion of the Court
Appellant Birch Hansen ("Hansen") and respondent Suzanne Todnem ("Todnem") established a parenting plan for their son, K.T., on July 24, 2015. On August 3, 2015, Hansen moved in the Ramsey County District Court for additional parenting time to provide before- and after-school child care for K.T. while Todnem was working. The district court denied Hansen's request on the ground that it was not in K.T.'s best interests. Hansen appealed, arguing that the district court failed to make detailed and specific findings on each of the factors listed in
*595modification and thus did not require detailed and specific findings on every best-interest factor. We affirm the court of appeals, though on different grounds.
FACTS
The parties in this case were in a romantic relationship for roughly 5 years, but never married. On September 1, 2010, the parties had their son, K.T. Shortly after K.T.'s birth, Todnem ended the relationship.
Through mediation with a parenting consultant, the parties established a parenting time schedule that gave Hansen parenting time on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Fridays, as well as three overnights at his home and four co-parenting overnights at Todnem's home every 2 weeks. On February 2, 2014, however, Todnem informed Hansen that he was no longer welcome in her home for co-parenting overnights. Instead, Todnem offered Hansen a fourth overnight at his home with K.T. every 2 weeks. Hansen petitioned the Ramsey County Family Court for joint custody and equal parenting time on February 5, 2014.
The parties stipulated to joint legal and physical custody with equal parenting time on March 18, 2015. After 4 months of negotiation with multiple mediators, the parties submitted a written parenting plan for the court's approval. The district court approved the parenting plan on July 24, 2015. Only 10 days later, Hansen moved for additional parenting time to provide child care for K.T. before and after school on Todnem's parenting days. Todnem opposed this motion, preferring to use K.T.'s school's child-care program, the Discovery Club, for before- and after-school care.
The district court denied Hansen's request. Finding that Hansen had not explained why he did not seek child-care parenting time during 4 months of mediation, the district court expressed concern that Hansen was trying to "end run" the parenting time agreement. Moreover, the district court concluded that Hansen's proposal was not in K.T.'s best interests, finding that the proposed arrangement would continue ongoing conflict between Hansen and Todnem, increase the number of transitions for K.T., and deprive K.T. of a predictable schedule if Hansen was ever unavailable to provide before- or after-school care.
On appeal, Hansen argued that the district court's decision was based on irrelevant or repealed factors, and that the district court erred by failing to make detailed findings on the newly amended best-interest factors listed in
*596ANALYSIS
I.
District courts have broad discretion on matters of custody and parenting time. See Goldman v. Greenwood ,
A.
Minnesota Statutes § 518.17 lists 12 factors bearing on the best interests of the child that the court must consider "for purposes of determining issues of custody and parenting time."
Before the 2015 amendment,
We have previously recognized, however, that establishing custody is controlled by a different statute than modifying custody. See State ex rel. Gunderson v. Preuss ,
B.
The court of appeals relied on its own common-law distinction that "significant changes" to parenting plans must be supported by specific findings, whereas "insignificant changes and clarifications"
*597do not require such findings. Hansen ,
The court of appeals also noted that
C.
Although we disagree with the court of appeals' analysis, we nevertheless reach the same conclusion: that the district court was required to consider only the relevant best-interest factors, and was not required to make specific findings on every factor listed in
Requests to modify an existing parenting plan for child-care parenting time are governed by
Here, the district court's factual findings show that it did not abuse its broad discretion when it declined to award Hansen additional parenting time under subdivision 8. Critically, the district court found that Hansen's proposed arrangement would increase the likelihood of continued conflict between him and Todnem.
*598This finding relates to the parents' ability to cooperate and to their willingness to use dispute-resolution methods. See
Minnesota Statutes § 518.175, subd. 8, does reference
Hansen argues that subdivision 8's reference to
Moreover, when the Legislature added a detailed-findings requirement to
II.
Hansen next argues that the district court relied on factors that were either repealed or irrelevant. Again, we hold that the district court was required to consider only the relevant best-interest factors in section 518.17, subdivision 1, and was not required to make specific and detailed findings on those factors when considering Hansen's modification request. Any findings of fact that a district court does make regarding the best-interest factors are reviewed for clear error. See Rasmussen v. Two Harbors Fish Co. ,
First, Hansen claims that the district court improperly focused on "stability." Among the best-interest factors is "the willingness and ability of each parent ... to maintain consistency and follow through with parenting time."
Second, Hansen argues that
Third, Hansen claims that the district court's findings about potential conflict between him and Todnem were irrelevant and should not have been considered. But potential conflict between the parents may be highly relevant to the parents' ability to cooperate, which is one of the three factors that the district court is required *600to consider. See
CONCLUSION
For the foregoing reasons, we affirm the decision of the court of appeals, though on other grounds.
Affirmed.
In addition to parenting time, Hansen raised disputes regarding child-support calculations, K.T.'s medical coverage, and the allocation of the federal tax dependency exemption before the court of appeals. Hansen ,
The district court must make sufficient findings to enable appellate review. Woodrich Constr. Co. v. State ,
Specifically, the district court initially determined that Todnem had raised a prima facie case of domestic abuse and was entitled to sole custody. Subsequently, however, the district court approved a joint custody agreement between the parties. It did not conclude that domestic abuse had occurred.
As the dissent notes, the district court also made a finding regarding the relative merits of parental care and out-of-home child care. The court of appeals declined to consider this finding in its analysis. Hansen ,
Hansen expressly concedes, however, that the statutory text of
Dissenting Opinion
DISSENT
I agree with the court's statutory interpretation analysis and therefore limit my concern, and this dissent, to a specific finding by the district court.
A district court has broad discretion in determining parenting-time issues and will not be reversed absent an abuse of that discretion. See Olson v. Olson ,
The Legislature enacted
The district court made thoughtful and detailed findings in this matter. Unfortunately, in one of the five findings that formed the basis of the decision, the district court suggested-with no support in the record for this claim-that parenting time is not necessarily superior to out-of-home daycare. Specifically, the district court said:
Father's proposal is based upon the assumption that care by a parent is always preferable to a child care setting. Quality child care offers more than babysitting. It offers the child opportunities to play with and interact with peers in a structured setting as well as enrichment activities designed by professional staff.
In juxtaposing parental care and third-party child care in this finding, the district court implied that "quality child care" was superior to parental care, in this case, care provided by the father. None of these statements are supported by the record and, as discussed elsewhere in this dissent, are at odds with the legislative intent. This finding reflects an abuse of discretion by the district court and requires a reversal of the court of appeals and a remand to the district court.
If this were purely a matter of sufficiency of the evidence, affirming the district court might well be in order. But, in addition to the complete absence of any support in the record for the suggestion that third-party child care is superior to parental care, the finding also collides with both the statutory framework and constitutional *601analysis. The Legislature has expressed a clear preference for parental care and child-rearing in adopting a statute to "allow additional parenting time to a parent to provide child care while the other parent is working."
There is also a constitutional component to this discussion. Although I do not argue here that the record supports a claim of constitutional error, it is worth noting that the Supreme Court has held that parents have a fundamental right to raise their children. See Troxel v. Granville ,
Given these statutory and constitutional principles, I cannot simply dismiss the district court's finding as surplusage or harmless error. Nor am I persuaded that, because there are other findings that support the district court order, somehow this finding can be safely ignored. Further, nothing in the order explicitly lays out which findings the district court considered most persuasive or important. In the end, I conclude that the district court abused its discretion by not properly considering father's request to "allow additional parenting time to a parent to provide child care while the other parent is working."
I respectfully dissent.
Dissenting Opinion
I join in the dissent of Justice Anderson.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Birch Benjamin HANSEN v. Suzanne Christine TODNEM
- Cited By
- 8 cases
- Status
- Published