TN Court Has Jurisdiction When Couple Returns to Live w/ Wife’s Parents

TN Court Has Jurisdiction When Couple Returns to Live w/ Wife’s Parents

Tennessee child custody case summary on jurisdiction in divorce.

Elizabeth Anne Sykes v. Chad Steven Sykes

The husband and wife were married in 2014 in Williamson County, Tennessee, and relocated shortly thereafter to Missouri, where they had two children.  In 2018, the husband became unemployed, and they returned to Tennessee to live with the wife’s parents. Later that year, the wife filed for divorce in Williamson County, and the husband was served with the summons and complaint the same day.  In her complaint, the wife alleged irreconcilable differences, and pointed to incidents that had taken place since relocating to Tennessee.

The husband moved to dismiss on the grounds that the wife had not been a Tennessee resident for six months, and that the acts complained of had not taken place in Tennessee.  He also alleged that the Tennessee court lacked jurisdiction over custody matters because Tennessee was not the children’s home state.

A hearing was held, and the trial court held that it had jurisdiction over the divorce and custody matters.  While the husband had testified that he never subjectively intended to change his domicile to Tennessee, the trial court accorded this testimony little weight, in light of the wife’s evidence to the contrary.  After trial, the husband appealed to the Tennessee Court of Appeals.  Among other things, he argued that the lower court lacked jurisdiction.

The court first looked to the relevant statute, which provides that a Tennessee court has divorce jurisdiction if either party resided in the state for six months, or if the acts complained of took place in Tennessee while the plaintiff was a bona fide resident.  Since neither party had resided in Tennessee for six months, the first portion of the statute was key.

The court reiterated that this statute makes residency by at least one party a precedent to jurisdiction.  Residency is defined as establishing a personal home in the state with no present intention or expectation of changing to residence in another state.

The trial court had held that the wife was a Tennessee resident.  She had relocated to Tennessee, and the husband followed after selling the home in Missouri.  The husband testified that he joined in the move to Tennessee to “work on the marriage,” and that he planned to stay “as long as it took.”  The appeals court agreed that this was sufficient to establish residence.

The husband argued, however, that the acts complained of in the complaint couldn’t have taken place in Tennessee.  The Court of Appeals made clear that the husband’s acts could have been before he was a resident himself, as long as the wife was a resident at that time.  For these reasons, the Court of Appeals held that jurisdiction was properly exercised.

The husband also argued that Tennessee was not the proper venue under the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act (UCCJEA).  Under that statute, the state must be the home state of the child on the date of the commencement of the case, or six months prior.

The trial court conceded that Tennessee was not the “home state” under the statute, but also pointed out that Missouri did not qualify either, since the children had no home in that state.  The statute provides an alternate avenue of jurisdiction in such cases, as long as Tennessee is a more appropriate forum.

The Court of Appeals held that jurisdiction under this provision was proper, because at least one parent resided in Tennessee when the case was commenced.

The court addressed other issues in the case, some of which it reversed.  But it affirmed the finding of jurisdiction and other portions of the judgment.

No. M2020-00261-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. Oct. 25, 2021).

See original opinion for exact language.  Legal citations omitted.

To learn more, see Child Custody Laws in Tennessee.

See also Tennessee Parenting Plans and Child Support Worksheets: Building a Constructive Future for Your Family featuring examples of parenting plans and child support worksheets from real cases available on Amazon.com.