Pearson v. Wendell
Annotate this CaseIn 2013, the district granted the parties in this case a divorce. The judgment provided that the parties were to share many parental rights and responsibilities and awarded primary residence of one child to Father and the other two children to Mother. The parties subsequently filed cross-motions to modify. The court struck the grant of the divorce itself and redesignated the remaining aspects of its previous orders as interim orders. After a final hearing, the district court issued a judgment awarding sole parental rights and responsibilities to Mother for one year and ordered that Father pay Mother spousal support. The Supreme Judicial Court affirmed, holding (1) the court gave proper deference and weight to prior orders issued in the case; (2) the court did not err in awarding sole parental rights and responsibilities to Mother; (3) the court properly assigned responsibility to a counselor for establishing a schedule of Father’s rights of contact with the children; (4) the court’s parental rights determination did not violate the children’s constitutional rights to procedural due process; (5) the court’s award of spousal support was not an abuse of discretion; and (6) the court did not abuse its discretion in awarding attorney fees to Mother.
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