D. K. v. D. F.

Citations

• 235 Conn. App. 59

Syllabus

The defendant, whose marriage to the plaintiff had previously been dis- solved, appealed from the trial court's judgment denying his motion to modify custody of the parties' minor children and to allow him visitation. The defendant claimed, inter alia, that the court improperly concluded that joint legal custody and visitation was not in the best interests of the chil- dren. Held: The trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying the defendant's motion for modification of custody and visitation, as the trial court considered many factors in determining whether modification of custody and visitation was in the children's best interests and, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, which was not present in this case, this court presumed that the trial court properly weighed all the evidence before it. The trial court properly articulated its basis for concluding that modification of custody and visitation was not in the children's best interests pursuant to the statute (§ 46b-56), as the court stated that it had considered all of the statutory factors set out in § 46b-56 (c) and it was not required to consider any particular factors or to assign weight to the factors that it considered. The trial court did not impermissibly delegate its judicial authority to the plaintiff by giving her discretion to decide the nature and scope of the defendant's visitation rights, as the court's initial custody order in the dissolu- tion judgment granted the plaintiff sole legal custody of the children and did not grant the defendant any visitation rights, and the fact that the court left open the possibility of visits at the discretion of the plaintiff did not transform the court's decision-making into impermissible delegation. In accordance with federal law; see 18 U.S.C. § 2265 (d) (3) (2018), as amended by the Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization Act of 2022, Pub. L. No. 117-103, § 106, 136 Stat. 49, 851; we decline to identify any person protected or sought to be p