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Contempt motion dismissed; mother had legitimate excuses and took reasonable steps to facilitate resisted parenting time.
The respondent father brought a motion to find the applicant mother in contempt of two parenting time orders due to missed access visits in 2020 and 2022.
The court applied the three-part test for civil contempt and found that while the orders were clear and the mother had knowledge of them, her non-compliance was not intentional or was justified by a legitimate excuse.
The missed visits in 2020 were explained by a misunderstanding of notice requirements, COVID-19 isolation directives, and the child's chronic skin condition.
The missed visits in 2022 were due to the eight-year-old child's strong resistance to overnight access, despite the mother's reasonable good faith efforts to facilitate the visits and seek therapeutic support.
The contempt motion was dismissed.
