Posted on 04/09/2009 9:10:23 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd
TEXAS CITY — A mother and daughter are locked in a custody battle in a Galveston County Justice of the Peace court over Noonie, a 2-year-old Chihuahua.
Kimberly Alleman, 37, is suing her mother, Sandra LaCaze, for ownership of the pint-size pup.
LaCaze claims her daughter sold her the dog in October for $400. Alleman said she can’t be held accountable for giving up the dog because she was drunk at the time.
The custody clash is being waged in Justice of the Peace Darrell A. Apffel’s courtroom, where a second hearing was held Tuesday. Technically, it is not a custody battle so much as a property fight because in Texas pets are considered property.
A handwritten bill of sale from October indicates Alleman and her mother agreed Noonie would live with LaCaze, but Alleman would pick up the Chihuahua every other weekend.
Alleman claims she and her mother were intoxicated at the time the agreement was signed and she tried to rescind the sale the next day.
“We were all drunk,” Alleman said. “I had to be driven home.
“When I sobered up the next day, I told mom ‘let’s make this right. Let me get the dog back.”’
LaCaze remembers things differently. She said she and her daughter agreed to the dog’s sale while at the office of a friend’s sand company in Texas City and said both women were sober at the time.
During Tuesday’s court hearing, LaCaze admitted she first signed the agreement by another name, but then scratched it out and signed her own name agreeing to the terms of the sale, including the weekend visits. The $400 came from Johnny Baulch, a friend of LaCaze’s who paid for the dog “as a gift,” court records show.
LaCaze said a week after the sale, her daughter demanded the dog back and she refused.
“Had she asked me and not made a scene, I probably would have given the dog back,” LaCaze said. “I wanted nice out of her.
“She’s not getting the dog back now.”
Alleman sued and Apffel awarded primary custody to LaCaze in a November hearing but ordered she allow her daughter to pick up the dog every first, third and fifth weekend of the month. It didn’t take long for that agreement to fall apart and the two ended up back in court.
LaCaze said when her daughter did have the dog for a weekend, Noonie returned sick and would defecate all over her house.
She also said Alleman twice failed to pick up the dog, and in her mind, that violated the judge’s order and refused to let her daughter have the dog anymore.
Alleman said she only missed one visitation weekend because she was sick and couldn’t pick up the dog. So she sued again.
In a tearful plea to the judge, she claimed the dog situation has not only upset her but her 16-year-old daughter and 14-year-old son, as well.
“This is crazy,” Alleman said to her mother during the hearing. “Why should we be back here, mom?”
A stone-faced LaCaze didn’t answer and would only look at the judge. After the hearing she said she wouldn’t give up Noonie because, “I love that dog. It’s like my baby.”
She even asked the judge to award her “dog support, just like child support.” The judge ignored the request.
Apffel, who had hoped the two women would have settled the issue, was frustrated by the fight and even admitted, “this isn’t working,” and ordered the pair into mediation.
If that doesn’t work, he said he will issue a ruling giving sole possession of Noonie to either LaCaze or Alleman.
“I can’t believe you would let this little dog get between your family,” the judge admonished both women.
Alleman and LaCaze said they would appeal any final judgment by the judge if Noonie ended up with the other.
Doggie ping.
Sword of Solomon.
One can have the left hand view and the other can have the right hand view.
ugh. who would even want or fight over a chihuahua! ack!
My thoughts too.
Finally, the truth!
OK, shouldn’t they be interested in what’s best for the doggie? /S
The Dog won.
Justice of the Peace? This case needs a good divorce court judge.
If there was a bill of sale then the dog was sold.
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