J.C. v. K.C.

179 A.3d 1124
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedFebruary 13, 2018
DocketNo. 2088 EDA 2017; No. 2089 EDA 2017
StatusPublished
Cited by26 cases

This text of 179 A.3d 1124 (J.C. v. K.C.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
J.C. v. K.C., 179 A.3d 1124 (Pa. Ct. App. 2018).

Opinion

OPINION BY BOWES, J.:

In these consolidated appeals, J.C., ("Father") appeals from the trial court orders that relinquished jurisdiction of the custody litigation to Tompkins County New York and dismissed the custody complaint that he filed in Philadelphia County Family Court. We reverse and remand for further proceedings.

Father and K.C. ("Mother") married during August 2012, while both were residents *1126of New York. The couple moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania during May 2016, and had one child, E.C., a daughter who was born the following month. They separated eight months later, when Mother and E.C. returned to Mother's hometown of Ithaca, New York. Upon arriving in New York, Mother immediately filed in the family division of that jurisdiction a custody petition and the equivalent of a petition for protection from abuse ("PFA"). The Honorable Joseph R. Cassidy of the Tompkins County Family Court presided over the New York proceedings. On February 23, 2017, Judge Cassidy entered an ex parte order that awarded Mother temporary physical custody of E.C.

Father challenged New York's subject matter jurisdiction over the custody proceeding, and on March 6, 2017, he filed a custody complaint in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas. Father stressed that Pennsylvania was E.C.'s home state pursuant to the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act ("UCCJEA"), 23 Pa.C.S. §§ 5401 - 5482, which applies to both Pennsylvania and New York. On the same date, he filed a motion for expedited relief informing the trial court of the New York proceedings and requesting, inter alia , that the trial court exercise its home-state jurisdiction.

On March 23, 2017, Mother filed preliminary objections to Father's complaint on the basis of forum non conveniens and requested that the trial court transfer jurisdiction of the custody matter to New York pursuant to 23 Pa.C.S. § 5427, which we set forth infra . The following day, she supplemented her position with a motion to stay Father's custody litigation pending the determination of subject matter jurisdiction in New York. The preliminary objection outlined several allegations of abuse that occurred in Pennsylvania and various jurisdictions other than New York. Father countered with an answer to Mother's preliminary objection. He challenged the preliminary objections as an improper mechanism to assert forum non conveniens . In addition, Father contested the allegations of abuse, leveled countervailing claims of abuse against her, and asserted that the relevant incidents occurred either in Pennsylvania or a jurisdiction other than New York.

On April 6, 2017, a Philadelphia motions court judge, who was not assigned the custody litigation, heard argument on Mother's motion to stay. The parties listed the matter for motions court specifically because a custody hearing was scheduled in the trial court the following day. After considering the parties' countervailing arguments, the motions court stayed the Pennsylvania proceedings until the New York court determined its subject matter jurisdiction. Significantly, while Mother and Father presumed that a telephone conference would occur between the jurists presiding over the respective proceedings in Pennsylvania and New York, neither party received notice of a pending communication.

On April 19, 2017, the trial court held a telephone conference with its New York counterpart, Judge Cassidy. Mother and Father were not informed of the conference and were not invited to participate. Following the discussion, the trial court ceded subject matter jurisdiction to New York as the more convenient location pursuant to § 5427. Accordingly, on June 5, 2017, the trial court entered an order that formally relinquished jurisdiction to New York. Two days later, a different Pennsylvania trial judge entered an administrative order that dismissed Father's custody complaint for lack of jurisdiction.

Father appealed the June 5 and 7, 2017 orders (collectively referred to as "the jurisdictional *1127orders"), and we consolidated the appeals sua sponte .

Father presents four questions for our review:

A. Whether the Trial Court erred and/or abused its discretion by issuing its Final Orders without findings of fact as well as an improper analysis and application of the inconvenient forum factors pursuant to the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act, 23 Pa.C.S.A. § 5427 ?
B. Whether the Trial Court erred and/or violated Father's procedural due process rights by failing to follow the communication requirements of the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act?
C. Whether the Trial Court erred, abused its discretion, and/or violated Father's procedural due process rights when it stayed the custody action and then abdicated its responsibilities under the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act to the New York Court?
D. Whether the Trial Court erred, abused its discretion, and/or violated Father's procedural due process rights by failing to consider Father's arguments in the record regarding Mother's violation of Pennsylvania's relocation requirements per 23 Pa.C.S.A. § 5337 and Pa.R.C.P. 1915.17 ?

Father's brief at 7.

We review a trial court's decision to exercise or decline subject matter jurisdiction for an abuse of discretion. S.K.C. v. J.L.C. , 94 A.3d 402 (Pa.Super. 2014) ("when a trial court possesses subject matter jurisdiction over a child custody dispute, a trial court's decision to exercise that jurisdiction is subject to an abuse of discretion standard of review."). As we previously explained, "an abuse of discretion occurs when the court has overridden or misapplied the law, when its judgment is manifestly unreasonable, or when there is insufficient evidence of record to support the court's findings." B.A.B. v. J.J.B. , 166 A.3d 395, 403 (Pa.Super. 2017), quoting J.K. v. W.L.K. , 102 A.3d 511, 513 (Pa.Super. 2014).

The following statutory scheme informs our discussion. The UCCJEA governs questions of subject matter jurisdiction between different states having interests in custody matters. It is beyond peradventure that the trial court had initial subject matter jurisdiction over the custody litigation pursuant to § 5421(a)(1), because Pennsylvania was E.C.'s home state within six months of the date the proceedings commenced, and Father continues to reside in the Commonwealth.1 Thus, the Philadelphia trial court has subject matter jurisdiction to make the initial custody determination.

When Mother filed the PFA petition in New York, Judge Cassidy exercised temporary emergency jurisdiction pursuant to New York's statutory equivalent of § 5424.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
179 A.3d 1124, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jc-v-kc-pasuperct-2018.