“Real Advantage” Standard

Removal of Child due to Remarriage of Custodial Parent.  The Appeals Court vacated a Probate and Family Court order denying the custodial parent’s right to remove the child to South Carolina where she had hoped to move in order to live with her new husband who lived on a military base there and remanded the case back to the trial court. Applying the “real advantage” standard for removal enunciated in Yannas v. Frondistou-Yannas, 395 Mass. 704 (1985), the Appeals Court held that “[a] sincere desire to be with a spouse is, per se, a good and sufficient reason that requires a finding that there is a real advantage to the custodial parent in moving.”  Furthermore, the Appeals Court noted, that if the first prong of Yannas is satisfied, then the trial court must apply the second prong of Yannas, and determine whether the child’s best interests are served by granting the removal petition.  Pizzino v. Miller, 67 Mass.App.Ct. 865 (December 26, 2006)