## Facts

- Two parents litigated allocation of parenting rights and responsibilities and primary residential custody concerning their two daughters.
- The dispute included a long-running interstate custody conflict, creating an extensive procedural and factual record.
- One parent repeatedly raised allegations that the other parent had sexually abused the children.
- Multiple investigations examined the abuse claims and repeatedly determined the allegations were unfounded.
- The trial court made credibility and best-interests findings against the backdrop of the continuing accusations and their impact on the children and co-parenting.
- Based on those findings, the trial court entered parenting-time and custody orders assigning primary residential responsibility and related decision-making arrangements.
- The aggrieved party appealed, challenging the custody-related determinations and the trial court’s assessment of the evidence.

## Issues

1. Whether the trial court erred in allocating parenting rights and responsibilities and designating primary residential custody under the statutory best-interests standard.
2. Whether the trial court’s findings concerning the repeated sexual-abuse accusations and the investigations deeming them unfounded were supported by the record.
3. Whether the trial court improperly weighed credibility, parental conduct, and the practical effects of the parties’ conflict when fashioning custody and parenting-time orders.
4. Whether the appellate court should disturb the trial court’s discretionary custody determinations given the extensive record and fact-specific nature of best-interests adjudication.

## Decision

- The New Hampshire Supreme Court affirmed the trial court’s orders allocating parenting rights and responsibilities and establishing primary residential custody.
- The court accepted the trial court’s findings that there had been a steady pattern of sexual-abuse accusations and that multiple investigations found the accusations unfounded.
- The court treated credibility and weight-of-the-evidence determinations as matters primarily for the trial court, particularly in custody disputes with a developed record.
- The court concluded the custody and parenting allocations were within the trial court’s discretion and consistent with the children’s best interests as found.

## Legal Principles

- Allocation of parenting rights and responsibilities, including primary residential custody, is governed by the child’s best interests as determined from the record.
- Appellate review of custody orders is deferential; factual findings will be upheld if supported by evidence, and discretionary choices will not be reversed absent legal error or abuse of discretion.
- Trial courts may consider a parent’s conduct during litigation, including repeated unfounded accusations, insofar as it bears on credibility, co-parenting capacity, stability, and the children’s welfare.
- Where the record reflects repeated investigations finding abuse allegations unfounded, a court may credit that history when assessing risk, credibility, and the overall best-interests calculus.

## Conclusion

The court affirmed custody and parenting-rights orders after holding that the trial court’s best-interests analysis and findings—particularly regarding repeated, investigated, and unfounded sexual-abuse allegations—were supported by the record and fell within the trial court’s discretion.


In re Miller & Todd, 161 N.H. 630, 20 A.3d 854 (N.H. 2011)