No Custody Jurisdiction After Child Out of TN for Six Months
Tennessee child custody case summary on jurisdiction (UCCJEA) and custody modification.
Amber Ada Hernandez v. David Alan Hernandez
The mother and father in this McNairy County, Tennessee. Case were divorced in 2006. The mother was named the primary residential parent, with the father having co-parenting time every other weekend. In about 2014, the father moved to North Carolina. About that same time, the mother became the focus of a criminal investigation alleging sexual conduct with a minor. The mother later relocated to Nashville, and then to Alabama.
In 2016, the father brought a petition in Tennessee to modify the parenting plan, and the case was heard by Judge Van D. McMahan. He asked for emergency custody based upon the statutory rape charges against the mother. While the case was pending, she ultimately pled guilty.
The mother moved to dismiss under the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Enforcement Act (UCCJEA). She argued that the Tennessee court no longer had jurisdiction. The trial court agreed and dismissed the case. The father then appealed to the Tennessee Court of Appeals.
The father argued that Tennessee had continuing jurisdiction because he alleged that the mother had not resided in Alabama for the required six months. He also argued that she was not justified in moving to that state. Finally, he argued that at the very least the Tennessee court had temporary emergency jurisdiction.
After reviewing the UCCJEA as adopted in Tennessee, the appeals court agreed with the lower court. It noted that a state loses continuing jurisdiction because Tennessee had not been the child’s “home state” for some time. The lower court had noted that Alabama appeared to be the correct jurisdiction, and the Court of Appeals agreed.
The father did point to an ambiguity in the child’s testimony as to when he had gone to school in Nashville. But the appeals court agreed that the evidence preponderated in favor of the lower court’s resolution of this issue.
The appeals court next turned to the father’s argument that the mother had committed unjustifiable conduct in moving to Alabama. But in this case, the appeals court noted that the Tennessee court had lost jurisdiction prior to the time of this conduct.
Finally, the Court of Appeals held that this case was not appropriate for temporary emergency jurisdiction. It noted that the UCCJEA exception for emergency jurisdiction applied only if there was a threat of abuse in the state. In this case, the child was no longer in Tennessee, and the appeals court held that this provision did not apply.
For these reasons, the Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court’s dismissal of the case for lack of jurisdiction.
No. W2018-01388-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. Jul. 30, 2019).
See original opinion for exact language. Legal citations omitted.
To learn more, see Modifying Custody & Parenting Plans.
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.
