The custody battle between Richard Patterson, son of former Prime Minister P.J. Patterson, and his ex-wife, Becki, a communications consultant, over their six-year-old child ended yesterday in the Court of Appeal.

The mother, who is a Trinidadian, was successful in getting the go-ahead from the court to take the child to live with her in Trinidad and Tobago.

Joint custody was granted in the Supreme Court to the parents but care and control of the child was granted to the mother. The Supreme Court had earlier turned down the mother's application for relocation to her country.The mother, who has since remarried, filed an appeal contending that Supreme Court Judge Horace Marsh erred in failing to grant her application for relocation.

desire to return home

She said one of her reasons for the relocation was that it was her desire to return home to her family. The father, who is a computer engineer and musician, had sought sole custody and control of the child at the hearing in the Supreme Court last year, but was not successful. Attorneys-at-law Ransford Braham and Suzanne Risden-Foster, who represented the mother, argued in the Court of Appeal that Justice Marsh failed to properly weigh the relevant factors and legal principles governing relocation cases and, as a consequence, failed to carry out the balancing exercise in arriving at his decision.

The father was represented by attorney-at-law Jacqueline Cummings who opposed the submissions.

After hearing legal arguments earlier this year, the Court of Appeal, comprising its president Mr Justice Seymour Panton, Mr Justice Karl Harrison and Mr Justice Dennis Morrison, handed down its decision yesterday.

joint custody

The parents are to have joint custody of the child, but the mother is to have care and control of the child. The mother is allowed to leave Jamaica with the relevant child to live in Trinidad and Tobago.

The father is to forthwith return the child to the mother. The court also ordered that the father is to have access to the child for half of all major school holidays and any other time the parties agree.

In relation to maintenance for the child, the Court of Appeal upheld a Supreme Court order that the father is to pay US$1,000 per month to the mother. The father is to provide the child with a health card and the the mother is to pay the relevant educational expenses.

barbara.gayle@gleanerjm.com