Bonnie Weiss Medlin v. Tim Weiss, 356 Ark. 588

Summary

The Arkansas Supreme Court addressed a dispute over visitation between a child and her paternal half-sisters during the father's scheduled visitation periods. The court held that the father, as a fit parent, could decide whether the child spent that time with her half-sisters, but reversed the separate sibling-visitation award under Ark. Code Ann. § 9-13-102 and remanded for amendment of the trial court's order. The court declined to decide the statute's facial constitutionality.

Holdings

1. A fit noncustodial parent may exercise the full visitation period established by the divorce decree and may decide what is in the child's best interest during that period, including whether the child visits with the parent's other daughters, without being physically present every hour.
2. The circuit court erred by awarding the half-sisters independent visitation rights under section 9-13-102; the order had to be reversed and remanded so that the court could preserve Tim's parental visitation rights without creating a separate statutory visitation entitlement for the half-sisters.
3. The court declined to decide whether section 9-13-102 was unconstitutional on its face or as applied.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the circuit court properly allowed Tim Weiss to exercise his full visitation period and make parenting decisions concerning Raegan during that period, even when he was not physically present.
2. Whether the circuit court could award Raegan's half-sisters independent visitation rights under Arkansas Code section 9-13-102 over the objection of Bonnie Medlin, a fit custodial parent.
3. Whether Arkansas Code section 9-13-102 was unconstitutional as written or as applied.

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded