In re Salminen

492 S.W.3d 31, 2016 WL 1356840, 2016 Tex. App. LEXIS 3474
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedApril 5, 2016
DocketNO. 01-14-01021-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 492 S.W.3d 31 (In re Salminen) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Salminen, 492 S.W.3d 31, 2016 WL 1356840, 2016 Tex. App. LEXIS 3474 (Tex. Ct. App. 2016).

Opinion

OPINION

Evelyn V. Keyes, Justice

This original mandamus proceeding arises from an underlying child support case filed by the relator, Outi Salminen (“Salminen”), a Finnish citizen, under the Uniform International Family Support Act (“UFFSA”).1 See Tex. Fam. Code Ann. §§ 159.001-.902 (West Supp.2015). Salmi-nen had sought an order for child support from the real party in interest Milo Vassal-lo (“Vassallo”), a New York resident. ‘Vas-sallo unsuccessfully challenged personal jurisdiction under the UIFSA, but he alternatively requested that the trial court take temporary emergency jurisdiction under the Texas Uniform Child Custody Ju-risdietion and Enforcement Act (“UC-CJEA”). See Tex. ■ Fam. Code Ann. §§ 152.001 — .317 (West Supp.2015).

After a temporary orders hearing held on November 17, 2014, the trial court rendered an oral decision and signed a written temporary, order in which it assumed emergency jurisdiction under section 152.204 of the UCCJEA, awarded temporary sole managing conservatorship of the child to Vassallo, and ordered the immediate surrender of the child to Vassallo. In this petition for a writ of mandamus, Sal-minen seeks to vacate the trial court’s November 17, 2014 temporary order. We conditionally grant the petition.

BACKGROUND

A. History in Finland

Salminen, a Finnish citizen, has sole custody over the child, S.F.Z.V., who was born in Finland in 2002. Both mother and child live in Finland, while Vassallo’s home state is New York. Salminen’s custody is based on two orders from district courts in Helsinki, Finland.

The first Finnish order — entitled “Child custody/visitation rights” — granted visitation rights to Vassallo, among other things, who acknowledged paternity over S.F.Z.V., and it noted that the child was in the sole custody of Salminen. This order was signed by a Helsinki district judge, the Honorable Hannele Lindholm, on June 3, 2013 (the “2013 Finnish Child Custody Order”).

A subsequent Finnish order — entitled “Child custody/visiting rights,, enforcement” — modified Vassallo’s visitation rights, among other things, and it was signed by another Helsinki .district judge, [34]*34the Honorable Helena Valkama, on January 24, 2014 (the “2014 Finnish Child Custody Order”). These Finnish child Custody orders were translated into English and submitted to the Harris County trial court as attachments to Vassallo’s “First Amended Motion to Register Foreign Child Custody Determination Pursuant to Section 152.305 of the Texas Family Code.” '

B. Procedural History in the Trial Court

In 2012, Salminen filed a child support petition under the UIFSA in New York. The New York court dismissed the petition for lack of jurisdiction, citing the Finnish child support agreement.

After Salminen was unable to establish personal jurisdiction over Vassallo in New York, she and S.F.Z.V. temporarily moved to South Texas in August 2014. On September 26, 2014, Salminen filed the underlying case, a first amended petition for child support, under the UIFSA, in Harris County, and the petition stated that she and S.F.Z.V. both resided in Texas.

The petition asserted that S.F.Z.V. was á twelve-year-old girl who had been born in Finland, was a dual citizen of Finland and the United States, and had lived in Finland most of her life. The parents, Salminen and Vassallo, were never married. Salminen alleged that the trial court had personal jurisdiction over Vassallo under the UIFSA because S.F.Z.V. was possibly conceived when the parents were in Texas in 2002. See Tex. Fam. Code Ann. § 159.201(a)(6) (West Supp.2015). ■

In response to Salminen’s child support petition, Vassallo challenged the trial court’s subject matter and personal jurisdiction under the UIFSA through a special appearance and plea to the jurisdiction. Alternatively, Vassallo requested that the tidal court exercise temporary emergency jurisdiction over S.F.Z.V. under the UC-CJEA. Vassallo claimed that he had been denied .visitation rights in Finland under two prior-Finnish child custody and visitation orders (the 2013 and 2014 Finnish Child Custody Orders), and he stated that he believed the Finnish court was the court of continuing, exclusive jurisdiction. Vassallo asserted that .the trial court was without jurisdiction to modify the 2013 and 2014 Finnish Child Custody Orders and that Salminen’s petition did not allege that the Finnish court, which had entered the previous, controlling conservatorship and visitation orders, had lost or relinquished jurisdiction, as the New York family court had held.

Subject to his special appearance, Vas-sallo entered an original answer with a general denial. Alternatively, Vassallo moved to modify the conservatorship of S.F.Z. V. and requested that the trial court exercise temporary emergency jurisdiction under UCCJEA section 152.204, which can be exercised when a child is present in the state and has been abandoned or it is necessary to protect the child because the child is subjected to or threatened with mistreatment or abuse. Vassallo contended that Salminen “has a continuous history of absconding with the child the subject of this suit, worldwide forum-shopping, and defying the Finnish court’s possession and access orders again and again,” and that that behavior “is nothing less than mistreatment and abuse of the child.” Vassal-lo argued that if the trial court determined it lacked general jurisdiction, Salminen would “abscond with the child again to another corner of the world without any notice to [Vassallo],” and he requested that the court exercise temporary emergency jurisdiction to modify the conservatorship orders in the best interest of the child.

The trial court notified the parties on October 31, 2014, to appear in court on [35]*35November 3, 2014, for a hearing on Vassal-lo’s motion for temporary emergency jurisdiction. Before the hearing, the trial court denied Vassallo’s special appearance and plea to the jurisdiction. At the November 3, 2014 hearing, the trial court set a temporary orders hearing for November 17, 2014, stating that it would decide issues of support, visitation, make-up visitation, and a possible geographic restriction at that hearing. The trial court did not mention custody. Off the. record, the trial court informed the parties’ counsel that it would assume general jurisdiction over tfie ease or, if there was an objection, temporary emergency jurisdiction under the UC-CJEA.

On November 17, 2014, before the temporary orders hearing took place, Vassallo filed a “Motion for Temporary Emergency Orders,” observing that the court had exercised subject matter jurisdiction over the child on November 3, 2014, and had appointed an amicus attorney to represent the interests of the child. Vassallo noted that Salminen had not responded to his motion to register the 2013 and 2014 Finnish Child Custody Orders, and' Vassallo amended this motion on Septembér" 30, 2014, by claiming, among other things, that he had been denied a total of four weeks visitation. Thus, Vassallo requested that the court enter orders pursuant to its temporary emergency jurisdiction and issue injunctions against Salminen prohibiting her from removing the child from the United States and providing for “court-ordered possession and access,”

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
492 S.W.3d 31, 2016 WL 1356840, 2016 Tex. App. LEXIS 3474, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-salminen-texapp-2016.