From A.W. v. I.C., decided Friday by the California Court of Appeal (in an opinion by Presiding Justice Frances Rothschild, joined by Justices Victoria Gerrard Chaney and Helen Bendix):
Father appeals the family court's order granting Mother's request that M.W. [their now-six-year-old child] move with her to Washington, D.C. Father argues the court reversibly erred when, in granting this request, the court "ignored" the opinion testimony of a custody investigator that Mother was relocating to Washington, D.C. as a means of keeping M.W. away from Father. But the trial court was entitled to deem the investigator's testimony not credible, and substantial evidence supports the court's finding that Mother's move was not in bad faith….
There's a lot in the facts, as usual for child custody opinions, but the unusual feature was the trial court's rejection of the "independent evaluator's" opinion (which the Court of Appeal then upheld):
