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Andrew Lee Lesher
v.
Taylor Noelle Hansen
Appellee
Andrew Lee Lesher
Appellant
Taylor Noelle Hansen
Attorney for the Appellee
Jamie Hunter
Attorney for the Appellant
Marcy Lundberg
Court of Appeals
Court of Appeals Opinion
Opinion Number:
Date Published:
Summary
Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Wright County, Colleen D. Weiland, Judge. AFFIRMED ON BOTH APPEALS. Considered by Tabor, P.J., and May and Greer, JJ. Opinion by Greer, J. (10 pages)
Andrew Lesher and Taylor Hansen are the never-married parents of G.H., who was born in the summer of 2018. In February 2019, Andrew filed a petition for paternity, custody, and visitation. Each parent asked the court to award them physical care of G.H. Following a two-day hearing in September 2019, the district court gave Andrew physical care of G.H. and awarded Taylor visitation with him. On appeal, Taylor maintains she should be given physical care of G.H. Andrew cross-appealed; he urges us to leave G.H. in his physical care and asks that we change G.H.’s surname to “Lesher” or, in the alternative, “Lesher-Hansen.” OPINION HOLDS: We affirm the district court ruling giving Andrew physical care of G.H. And because we agree with the district court that Andrew was asking for a name change rather than an initial name determination, Andrew’s only option to do so was under the guidelines of Iowa Code chapter 674 (2019). We affirm on both appeals.
