No Custody Jurisdiction After Parents and Child Leave TN

Tennessee law case summary on child custody jurisdiction in post-divorce and family law from the Court of Appeals.

Winfred Errol Ankton v. Chandranita Michelle Ankton  – Tennessee divorce UCCJEA custody jurisdiction.

Winfred and  Chandranita Ankton had one child when they were divorced in Shelby County, Tennessee, in 2002, and the mother was granted primary custody.  In 2003, the father remarried and moved to Arkansas.  Also in 2003, he went to court in Tennessee and asked that the mother be held in contempt and he be granted custody.  The trial court agreed and granted the father custody.  In 2012, he was given permission to move to El Paso, Texas.

In 2013, the mother came to Court in Tennessee asking for another change of custody.  The trial court, Judge Kenny W. Armstrong, held that the Tennessee court no longer had jurisdiction and dismissed the request, holding that Texas now had jurisdiction.  Dissatisfied with this ruling, the mother then appealed to the Tennessee Court of Appeals.

The appeals court first recognized that the case was governed by the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act (UCCJEA), which has been adopted in some form in all fifty states.  Under that act, a state loses jurisdiction when the child and parents no longer reside in the state.  In this case, the father and child resided in Texas, and the mother had moved to Mississippi.

While the exact dates were unclear, it appeared that all of the relevant parties had lived outside of Tennessee starting in 2005.  Even though the mother had subsequently moved back to Tennessee at some point, this fact did not re-vest jurisdiction in the state, since it had already been lost in 2005.

Since Tennessee no longer had jurisdiction over the case, the appeals court affirmed the trial court’s order dismissing the case on jurisdictional grounds.

No. W2013-02152-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. May 27, 2014).

See original opinion for exact language.  Legal citations omitted.

To learn more, see Tennessee Child Custody Laws in Divorce.