Tenn. Might Retain Jurisdiction in Custody Dispute Despite Arguing

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

In Re LaZaria C.R.H. – Tennessee custody jurisdiction dispute over transfer to Texas

LaZaria was born in Tennessee in 2009 to unwed parents.  In 2010, the father established parentage and then petitioned for full custody.  He was awarded temporary weekly visitation, but in 2011, the mother moved the child to Texas where she has lived ever since.  The father then filed a motion to hold the mother in contempt.  The father was granted joint custody, but with the mother named the primary residential parent.  The contempt petition was dismissed.

The father asked for a rehearing before a substitute judge.  As a result of that hearing, the father was to receive visitation every third week of the month.  The parties were ordered to meet in Texarkana, Arkansas, to exchange the child.

At one of these Texarkana meetings, the mother failed to show up, and the father went back to the Tennessee court.  The mother was pregnant and failed to show up.  The judge granted a continuance, but the father, apparently representing himself, asked for an immediate grant of temporary custody.  The judge declined to do so, and the father continued making arguments.  The judge warned the father that if he continued to argue, he would simply transfer the case to Texas.  The father didn’t heed the warning to stop making arguments, and the judge made good on the transfer.  He ordered that the case should be transferred to the appropriate Texas court.

The trial court made written findings that the father was disruptive and kept talking over other parties and the judge.  The court noted that the father was unable to control his anger both in court and on the telephone to the court clerk.  Unwilling to take his case to the Lone Star State, the father instead appealed the ruling to the Tennessee Court of Appeals.

The Court of Appeals looked at the statutory factors regarding transfers of cases, and noted that nobody presented evidence as to the statutory factors.  The judge had commented that the child’s doctor and daycare were in Texas, but there was no evidence in the record that supported these findings.  Instead, the Court of Appeals noted that the trial court had become frustrated by the father’s persistence and argumentative tone.

Since the statutory factors had not been addressed, the Court of Appeals reversed the trial court’s ruling and sent the case back.  The Court of Appeals declined to reach the issue of custody, since that had not yet been addressed by the lower court.

No. W2012-02308-COA-R3-JV (Tenn. Ct. App. Jan. 9, 2014).

See original opinion for exact language.  Legal citations omitted.

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