Crampton v. Crampton

Defendant appeals as of right from an order of the circuit court directing a change of physical custody of two minor children from defendant mother to plaintiff father. We reverse.

The dispositive issue here is the trial court’s failure to provide the parties with a de novo hearing. It was not sufficient for the court to rely on the testimony and evidence from the referee’s hearing and to limit the taking of further testimony as was done here. Truitt v Truitt, 172 Mich App 38, 43-43; 431 NW2d 454 (1988). This is clear legal error requiring reversal. Id., p 44; MCL 722.28; MSA 25.312(8).

Given…