Misyura v. Misyura

Summary

The Alaska Supreme Court affirmed the award of sole legal and physical custody to the mother based on the father's history of domestic violence under AS 25.24.150(g). The court held that the trial court did not clearly err in finding a history of domestic violence and that the custody presumption applied. It reversed and remanded the visitation order because the trial court improperly delegated to the mother the authority to require the father to complete a batterer intervention program as a condition of visitation.

Holdings

1. The court did not decide whether the superior court abused its discretion by permitting relitigation because, even assuming error, any error was harmless; the superior court independently found at least two instances of domestic violence sufficient to trigger the statutory presumption.
2. The superior court did not clearly err in finding that Sergey had a history of perpetrating domestic violence, and it properly applied AS 25.24.150(g)'s rebuttable presumption against awarding him legal or physical custody.
3. The superior court may not delegate to a custodial parent the authority to decide whether to impose a batterers' intervention program as a prerequisite to the noncustodial parent's visitation. That decision must be made by the court.
4. The court did not reach the overnight-visitation issue because it reversed and remanded the visitation order on the separate delegation error.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the superior court clearly erred in finding that Sergey had a history of domestic violence sufficient to trigger the custody presumption under AS 25.24.150(g) and (h).
2. Whether the superior court should have applied collateral estoppel to prevent relitigation of domestic-violence incidents previously addressed in a protective-order proceeding.
3. Whether the superior court improperly delegated to Lyudmila the authority to require Sergey to attend a batterers' intervention program as a condition of unsupervised visitation.
4. Whether Sergey was improperly denied overnight visitation.

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded