Brad Pitt is asking California’s top court to review a recent ruling that disqualified the private judge handling his child custody war with Angelina Jolie and undid his tentative 50-50 custody win.
In a filing Tuesday (Aug 31), Pitt and his lawyers said the 2nd District Court of Appeal issued a “dangerous” ruling last month when it disqualified Judge John Ouderkirk and effectively invalidated his work on the couple’s case over an “administrative error".
“We are seeking review in the California Supreme Court because the temporary judge, who had been appointed and repeatedly renewed by both sides, was improperly disqualified after providing a detailed, fact-based custodial decision, following a lengthy legal process with multiple witnesses and experts,” Pitt’s lawyer Theodore J. Boutrous Jr. said in a statement to the Daily News.
“After more than four years of contentious litigation, every day of which has harmed the children and their father, an important and considered custody decision will be entirely undone as a result of an administrative error that is wholly unrelated to the merits of the custody dispute itself,” the petition obtained by The News states.
The petition argues Ouderkirk was disqualified because the “administrative error” delayed disclosures regarding his professional history with Pitt’s lawyers.
Pitt claims Ouderkirk “already disclosed such information at the inception of the case and on multiple occasions thereafter over three and a half years.”
The surprise decision last month followed two months after Pitt won a tentative ruling from Ouderkirk granting him the 50-50 physical and legal custody of the couple’s five minor children that he sought against Jolie’s wishes. – New York Daily News/Tribune News Service
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