Every year I do a table of published family law opinions from the prior year. 2023 was a slow year, but not the slowest year since I started this blog. It is the first year since 2016 to have no family law opinions issue from the Supreme Court. In fact, there was only one appellate argument in the Supreme Court last year addressing family law. No opinion has issued from that argument yet. The previous Supreme Court oral argument on a family law issue is from January 2022 and no opinion has issued from that case either. Does the Supreme Court believe there are no interesting family law issues yet to resolve?
Further, no published opinions have issued since the August 30, 2023 decision in Brantley v. Brantley, 441 S.C. 284, 893 S.E.2d 349 (Ct. App. 2023)—a published loss which primarily established that I have represented numerous fathers on appeal [but not at trial] whose financial disclosure did not impress the family court or the Court of Appeals. Moore v. Smith, 441 S.C. 261, 892 S.E.2d 552 (Ct.App. 2023), established that one can be awarded attorney’s fees for enforcing a family court order, even if the other party’s non-compliance isn’t willful.
Downing v. Downing, 440 S.C. 322, 891 S.E.2d 375 (Ct. App. 2023) interpreted the South Carolina statute addressing alimony modification upon retirement but held that, when a retired spouse’s income and net worth had actually increased since alimony was last set, retirement was not a reason to reduce or terminate alimony. Sullivan-Carter v. Carter, 439 S.C. 406, 887 S.E.2d 146 (Ct.App. 2023), continued a pattern of the appellate courts reversing family court’s findings of common-law marriage.
Five of the nine decisions addressed custody related issues. Fossett v. Fossett, 440 S.C. 576, 891 S.E.2d 515 (Ct.App. 2023), declined to modify custody where the children’s preference may have been the result of manipulation. Greene v. Greene, 439 S.C. 427, 887 S.E.2d 157 (Ct.App. 2023), found exceptional circumstances to affirm joint physical custody and divided legal custody. It was the first published opinion approving of divided legal custody. Grungo-Smith v. Grungo, 438 S.C. 508, 884 S.E.2d 219 (Ct. App. 2023), reversed the family court’s modification of the prior joint custody arrangement. Taylor v. Taylor, 439 S.C. 272, 886 S.E.2d 716 (Ct.App. 2023), rejected a textualist interpretation of South Carolina’s Protection from Domestic Abuse statute and found that stepchildren fell within the ambit of protection. SCDSS v. Scott, 438 S.C. 400, 883 S.E.2d 229 (Ct. App. 2023), granted a new trial to a father who was found by the family court to have sexually abused his child based on a finding that the family court improperly limited his cross-examination.
It appears the supreme court’s lack of interest matches society as a whole in disregarding the best interest of the child during “childhood.” A child does best when gleaning emotional reassurance from both parents. Family stability, from the child’s point of view, should be protected by the rulings made at all levels, up to the supreme court.