Tennessee Mom Held in Contempt for Dragging Feet on Kids’ Passports

Tennessee law case summary on contempt in family law from the Court of Appeals.

Denise L. Heilig v. Roy Heilig – Tennessee post-divorce contempt.

Denise and Roy Heilig were divorced in Shelby County, Tennessee, in 2008.  They had two minor children, and the trial court adopted a parenting plan naming the mother the primary custodial parent.  At the time of the divorce, the mother and children had moved to Illinois.  Much litigation followed in Tennessee, even though the father had also left the state and now lived in Pennsylvania.

During one of these disputes, the mother and father agreed that the father could obtain passports for the children, and that the mother would cooperate in executing the necessary documents.  But six months later, the father came back to court and asking the court to hold the mother in contempt for failing to cooperate with getting the passports.  He alleged that he was forced to cancel a family vacation as a result.

The mother signed the documents at the last minute, but the trial court still held her in contempt and placed her in jail for one day.  It also ordered her to pay $3000 in attorney fees.  The mother appealed this order to the Tennessee Court of Appeals.

The mother first argued that the court lacked jurisdiction of the case since neither party lived in Tennessee.  But the Court of Appeals disagreed.  It noted that the dispute over a passport was not a child custody matter, and that the mother had continued to file motions in Tennessee even after the father left the state.  The trial court had jurisdiction over these pending matters, and that the time for looking at jurisdiction was at the start of the proceeding.

The father also asked for an award of attorney fees for the appeal, but the court denied this request.  For these reasons, the Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment of the trial court.

No. W2013-01232-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. Feb 28, 2014).

See original opinion for exact language.  Legal citations omitted.