Facts
On January 12, 1998, the District Court of Winterthur divorced [J.R.] and [R.R.] . The court placed the joint son under the parental authority of the mother and granted the father generous visitation rights. On July 15, 1998, the mother sued the father before the District Court of Winterthur, requesting that the visitation rights be suspended or modified. The District Court and the FJA of the Canton of Zurich decided that the father was allowed to visit the son on the first, second, and fourth Sundays of each month, whereby missed visitation days could not be made up.
The father appealed to the Federal Court and requested that missed visitation days be made up, unless the son was ill. The Federal Court dismissed the appeal and confirmed the judgment of the FJA.
Considerations
The Federal Court examined whether the modification of the visitation rights by the FJA was lawful. It found that the question of whether missed visitation days can be made up is not regulated by law. The doctrine is not unanimous on whether such days should be made up in principle or only if they could not be taken due to reasons that the holder of parental authority or the person entitled to custody is responsible for.
The Federal Court decided that the FJA did not deviate from recognized principles in its decision not to allow missed visitation days to be made up. It considered the facts that played a…