Olson v. Richards

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF DELAWARE

SHERRY OLSON,1 §
§ No. 223, 2023
Petitioner Below, §
Appellant, § Court Below–Family Court
§ of the State of Delaware
v. §
§ File No. CN13-06305
SCOTT RICHARDS, § Petition No. 22-16100
§
Respondent Below, §
Appellee. §

Submitted: December 22, 2023
Decided: February 26, 2024

Before TRAYNOR, LEGROW, and GRIFFITHS, Justices.

ORDER

After consideration of the parties’ briefs and the record on appeal, we

conclude that the judgment below should be affirmed on the basis of the Family

Court’s May 16, 2023 order denying the appellant’s petition to modify custody.

Because the petition was filed within two years of the court’s most recent custody

order, the Family Court appropriately considered whether “continuing enforcement

of the prior order may endanger the child[ren]’s physical health or significantly

impair [their] emotional development.”2 The Family Court’s factual findings will

1
The Court previously assigned pseudonyms to the parties under Supreme Court Rule 7(d).
2
13 Del. C. § 729(c)(1).
not be disturbed on appeal unless they are clearly erroneous.3 The appellant’s

disagreement with the Family Court’s factual findings is not a basis for reversal, and

her claim of judicial bias is not supported by the record.4

NOW, THEREFORE, IT IS ORDERED that the judgment of the Family

Court is AFFIRMED.

BY THE COURT:

/s/ Abigail M. LeGrow
Justice

3
Shimel v. Shimel, 2019 WL 2142066, at *2 (Del. May 14, 2019).
4
See Los v. Los, 595 A.2d 381, 384 (Del. 1991) (noting that judicial bias “must stem from an
extrajudicial course and result in an opinion on the merits on some basis other than what the judge
learned from [her] participation in the case”).
2