Court Resolves Custody, But Can’t Easily Pass Jurisdiction

The unmarried parties in this Greene County, Tennessee, case were the parents of two children, born in 2016 and 2021.  The older child was born in Tennessee and lived there with the parents until 2021, when the mother returned home to Florida.  She left after learning that the father, a truck driver, had been having affairs with men while on the road.  When she left Tennessee, she was pregnant with the younger child, who was born in Florida.

The father filed a petition to establish parentage of the younger child in Tennessee.

The case was bitterly litigated, with many allegations being made.  For examp0le, the father accused the mother of using drugs while breastfeeding.

While the case was pending, a Florida court heard a petition under the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act (UCCJEA), but held that Florida had no jurisdiction over the case.

Various contempt motions were heard, and the case went to hearing in late 2021.  In February, 2022, the trial court entered a permanent parenting plan.  The mother was named the primary residential parent, with the father being granted 120 days of parenting time.  The trial court found that the mother was performing most of the parenting duties, but admonished her for “sneaking off” to Florida to give birth to the younger child.

More motions followed, including motions for contempt and to modify the parenting plan, and a hearing was held on all pending motions in April and May 2023.   Among the evidence presented was a USB drive that the mother had removed from the father’s phone.  A sheriff’s deputy testified that these images represented child sexual abuse, but that it was impossible for her to prosecute, since it was impossible to link the USB drive to the father.

In August 2023, the trial court denied the mother’s motion to modify the parenting plan.  While it found that the father’s personal interests might be questionable, they did not amount to a material change of circumstances.  It also held that his sexual preferences were not a bar to visitation.

The trial court also ruled that it would decline to exercise jurisdiction going forward, and that if there were any further litigation, it should take place in Florida.  After some further motions, the father appealed to the Tennessee Court of Appeals.

The father first asserted that he should have been granted greater custody rights.  But the trial court held that this issue had not been properly preserved, and there was nothing for the father to appeal.

The father also argued that the trial court should have jailed the mother for contempt, instead of suspending her sentence.  The appeals court agreed with the father that it viewed this as “overly lenient,” but it also noted that the question was best handled by the trial court.  Since it did not amount to an abuse of discretion, the appeals court would not substitute its judgment.

The appeals court agreed with the father that the pictures on the USB drive were inadmissible, and should not have been considered.  But due to the outcome of the case, it held that the error was harmless.

Finally, the father appealed the trial court’s declining further jurisdiction.  The trial court had noted that most witnesses were in Florida, which was now the children’s home state.

But the appeals court disagreed.  It cited the factors in the UCCJEA.  In particular, it pointed out that the Tennessee court had not communicated with the Florida court before making its ruling.  For this reason, it vacated the lower court’s order declining further jurisdiction.  It instructed the lower court to follow the factors outlined by the UCCJEA.

For these reasons, the Court of Appeals affirmed in part, but vacated in part, the lower court’s ruling, and remanded the case.

No. E2023-01581-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. Dec. 11, 2024).

See original opinion for exact language.  Legal citations omitted.

To learn more, see Child Custody Laws in Tennessee and our video, How is child custody determined 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.