Ashlyn Savanna Farris v. Daniel Wayne Farris

── Ashlyn Savanna Farris v. Daniel Wayne Farris ── Court: Court of Civil Appeals of Alabama Date: May 08, 2026 Author: Bowden Category: General Rel: May 8, 2026 Notice: This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the advance sheets of Southern Reporter. Readers are requested to notify the Reporter of Decisions, Alabama Appellate Courts, 300 Dexter Avenue, Montgomery, Alabama 36104-3741 ((334) 229-0650), of any typographical or other errors, in order that corrections may be made before the opinion is published in Southern Reporter. ALABAMA COURT OF CIVIL APPEALS OCTOBER TERM, 2025-2026 _________________________ CL-2025-0456 _________________________ Ashlyn Savanna Farris v. Daniel Wayne Farris Appeal from Winston Circuit Court (DR-23-900098) BOWDEN, Judge. Ashlyn Savanna Farris ("the mother") appeals from a judgment entered by the Winston Circuit Court ("the circuit court") divorcing her and Daniel Wayne Farris ("the father"), awarding the father sole physical CL-2025-0456 custody of the parties' minor child, and dividing the parties' marital home. Background and Procedural History On November 16, 2023, the father filed in the circuit court a complaint for a divorce from the mother on the bases of incompatibility of temperament and an irretrievable breakdown of the marriage. On November 20, 2023, the mother filed an answer denying the allegations contained in the father's complaint along with a counterclaim for a divorce from the father. On November 29, 2023, the father filed a motion for a pendente lite hearing, which stated that the mother was not facilitating reasonable opportunities for the father to see the parties' child and requested that the circuit court address temporary custody. At a hearing on January 31, 2024, the father testified that he and the mother were married on June 1, 2019, and separated in November 2023. He also testified that the parties shared a child, who was born on August 22, 2023. The father then testified that the mother had made it difficult for him to see the parties' child since the separation, though he had been able to visit with the child on a few occasions. During the 2 CL-2025-0456 hearing, the parties reached an agreement to share joint legal custody and joint physical custody of the child. Following the January 31, 2024, hearing, the circuit court entered an order reflecting that agreement and awarding the parties joint legal custody and joint physical custody. In the order, the circuit court implemented an alternating schedule whereby each party would have physical custody of the child for three days at a time. The parties appeared for the trial on January 6, 2025. During the trial, the father testified that the shared custody-arrangement had been going well, and he requested that the circuit court award the parties joint physical custody. He requested that the physical-custody schedule be changed to provide a seven-day alternating schedule instead of the pendente lite three-day schedule. The father also requested that the circuit court establish a custody schedule for holidays and vacations in the final judgment. When the parties separated in November 2023, the mother moved in with her parents. The father testified that the mother's new residence was about 100 miles, or 2 hours of travel, away. The mother testified that she lived with her parents in north Alabama and worked for a Tennessee 3 CL-2025-0456 school district as a teacher. The father testified that he was a tenured employee with the school district where the parties had lived. The parties both testified that the child should have regular conta