rejecting the compelling-reason requirement and explaining that “our caselaw more accurately holds that siblings may be separated if the trial court concludes, based on sufficient evidence in the record, that the separation will serve the best interests of the children at issue”
How later courts described this case
- rejecting the compelling-reason requirement and explaining that “our caselaw more accurately holds that siblings may be separated if the trial court concludes, based on sufficient evidence in the record, that the separation will serve the best interests of the children at issue”
- reversing a judgment insofar as it required a parent to pay half of the child's expenses for extracurricular activities because, among other reasons, "[t]he final judgment … failed to include the language necessary to support an award under Rule 32(C)(4)[, Ala. R. Jud. Admin.]"
- citing, among other authority, Alverson, 28 So. 3d at 790 (Moore, J., concurring in part and concurring in the result in part)
- reversing a judgment insofar as it required a parent to pay half of child’s expenses for extracurricular activities because, among other reasons, “[t]he final judgment ... failed to include the language necessary to support an award under Rule 32(C)(4)”
Written by the judges who cited it.
The opinion
THOMAS, Judge,
concurring in part and concurring in the result.
Although I concur in all other aspects of the main opinion, I concur only in the result in Part I of the main opinion, which is that portion of the opinion addressing the custody award in the present case. I do not agree that our caselaw does not require that the record reveal compelling reasons supporting a separation of siblings in a custody determination. See Alverson v. Alverson, 28 So.3d 784, 787-88 (Ala.Civ.App.2009); Mar dis v. Mardis, 660 So.2d 597 (Ala.Civ.App.1995); and Jensen v. Short, 494 So.2d 90 (Ala.Civ.App.1986). I do not see this requirement as imposing any undue burden on either parent or on the trial court, nor do I see it as anything *736 more than a guiding principle designed to assist the trial court in determining the best interest of the children whose custody it must decide.