N.A.

BACKGROUND

We rely on the 2022 opinion for much of the factual and procedural background recited herein. In 2014, the trial court issued an order awarding joint custody of J. evenly between N.A. and the grandparents. In 2020, the grandparents filed a request for an order modifying custody and N.A. filed his own request for an order awarding him primary legal and physical custody of J. In June 2021, the trial court conducted a bench trial on the parties’ requests for modification. The parties stipulated to admission of each side’s exhibits, the trial court took judicial notice of the entire file, and numerous witnesses testified, including N.A. and the grandparents. In August 2021, the trial court issued an order after hearing, finding it was in J.’s best interest to be primarily in the custody of the grandparents. A different panel of this court reversed that order because the trial court failed to make a specific finding that an award of primary custody to N.A. would be detrimental to J. The panel agreed with N.A. that the trial court erred in ruling he had waived his right under Family Code2 section 3041 to that specific finding because he had agreed to shared custody with the…