Dalton v. Doherty

In Dalton v. Doherty, 670 S.W.2d 422 (Tex. App.--Fort Worth 1984, no writ), the original divorce decree appointed the father managing conservator and the mother possessory conservator, but gave each parent the right to have possession of the children "half the time." Pursuant to the father's subsequent motion to modify the original decree in order to specify the mother's periods of possession, the court, while retaining the mother's status as possessory conservator, ordered that she was to have possession of the older child on odd weekends and the younger child "at all times except even weekends of each month." Accordingly, the father received possession of the younger child only during even weekends. On appeal by the father, we held that the order did not merely modify the mother's visitation rights; rather, it "effectively changed the managing conservatorship of the younger child from the father to the mother." By granting the mother possession of the child at all times except even weekends, we reasoned, "the order operated to completely deprive the father of his function as managing conservator of the younger child." The Court held, therefore, that the order constituted a de facto change in managing conservatorship of the younger child that was not supported by the evidence.