Marriage of Schmitz CA4/1

BACKGROUND

Mother and father were married in 1997, separated in 2006 and divorced in early

2009. As noted, they had two children during their marriage, Ryon and Craig.

The record shows that after they separated, mother and father were able to resolve

their custodial timeshare issues without court intervention. Initially, father had custodial

time with the boys on alternate weekends from Friday through Monday and on every

Monday overnight. However, in late October 2008, father filed an order to show cause to

reduce his spousal and child support. In addition, he requested equal custodial time with

the boys, based on the boys' request to spend additional time with him. Mother opposed

1 Father has not filed a brief in this appeal. However, "we do not treat the failure to file a respondent's brief as a 'default' (i.e., an admission of error) but independently examine the record and reverse only if prejudicial error is found." (Kennedy v. Eldridge (2011) 201 Cal.App.4th 1197, 1203, citing In re Bryce C. (1995) 12 Cal.4th 226, 232-233 and In re Marriage of Riddle (2005) 125 Cal.App.4th 1075, 1078, fn. 1; compare In re Bryce C., at p. 232 ["If an…