S. Frederick P. v. Barbara P.

115 Misc. 2d 332, 454 N.Y.S.2d 202, 1982 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 3688
CourtNew York City Family Court
DecidedJuly 26, 1982
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 115 Misc. 2d 332 (S. Frederick P. v. Barbara P.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York City Family Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
S. Frederick P. v. Barbara P., 115 Misc. 2d 332, 454 N.Y.S.2d 202, 1982 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 3688 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1982).

Opinion

OPINION of the court

Stanley Gartenstein, J.

Three proceedings are presently before this court all involving a ruling on the same issues: (1) Petition to enforce visitation filed by the father of the two subject children; (2) Petition and order to show cause brought on by the mother in the Supreme Court, New York County, to modify visitation which has been referred to the undersigned by order of the Honorable Hortense W. Gabel, Justice, Supreme Court; (3) Petition and order to show cause to enforce summer visitation without the State of New York brought on by the father. Aside from these proceedings, various other criminal and civil actions both in the States of New York and Texas are now pending between various members of the respective families who have allowed themselves to be drawn into an incredibly bitter postmatrimonial dispute as surrogate combatants. [333]*333This bitter cross-country litigation is so involved that one suspects that, like the legendary Jarndyce family of Dickens’ Bleak House, this family will cease its race to the courthouse on every available pretext only when all sides run out of funds.

In the midst of this total warfare, two lovely children, the subject of this litigation, remain remarkably well adjusted, a bit disdainful over what they perceive to be adult foolishness, and most impatient for all the combatants to act mature enough to stop this pointless war.

The parties herein were apparently New York domiciliarios until they moved to the State of Texas where the father established lucrative business connections involving dental clinics. They were divorced there by decree entered on September 2,1981. Custody was awarded to the mother with liberal detailed visitation to the father. The decree reflects the minutiae of detail which ordinarily accompanies bitter negotiations and is specific about every conceivable contingency down to division of the teaspoons. Without belaboring the details of custody and visitation, the crucial portion of this decree upon which much litigation has and will center involves a provision that the children are not to be removed from the State of Texas by their mother in the absence of court permission unless the wife remarries. On December 3, 1981, the wife, relying on a “marriage” which was all form and no substance, removed the children from the State of Texas to re-establish her domicile with them within New York State. Her total absence from this State was some 27 months.

Needless to say, much litigation followed in the State of Texas, all at the instance of the enraged father, with the exception of one proceeding in the nature of habeas corpus successfully brought by the mother when the father, after one visit, apparently did not return the children. In spite of the fact that the detailed visitation obviously contemplates a close-at-hand situation between father and children, there has been a steadfast refusal on either side to be flexible in keeping with the realities of the changed situation which has gone as far as the father’s flying to New York for weekends.

[334]*334The validity of the mother’s de facto residence in New York has never been adjudicated. Time after time the father has attempted to bring his claimed violation of its decree before the Texas court in various forms via an esoteric assortment of proceedings none of which have as yet been adjudicated on the merits of this issue. There is now pending, however, in the District Court of Harris County, State of Texas, a motion brought by the father to adjudicate the mother in contempt, directly involving this issue. It was brought on as the latest of an ongoing series of proceedings in that State only after the three applications before us were brought and issue joined in this court.

The primary question currently presented is one of jurisdiction and, as such, reference must be made to the controlling statutory authority, to wit: the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act (UCCJA) codified in New York in article 5-A of the Domestic Relations Law and the Parental Kidnaping Prevention Act of 1980 (US Code, tit 28, § 1738A; tit 42, §§ 654, 655, 663 [PKPA]). Both statutes distinguish between jurisdiction to enforce the decree of a sister State as opposed to jurisdiction to modify it. It must be realized in the context of this litigation that while the assumption by a State of enforcement jurisdiction is an act consistent with the terms of a decree, the assumption of modification jurisdiction is essentially hostile to it.

In order to determine whether this court may properly assume modification jurisdiction, it is first necessary to note that while the underlying policies of the respective acts are identical, namely, “to curtail the ‘childnapping’ and forum shopping which, in the long run, had generated such instability for children in the past” (Fernandez v Rodriguez, 97 Misc 2d 353, 356), they contain fundamental differences; and where they do, the PKPA must be deemed controlling. The PKPA as a Federal enactment implements a policy of Federal pre-emption which must be accorded priority by virtue of the supremacy clause of the United States Constitution (Matter of Leslie L.F. v Constance F., 110 Misc 2d 86).

Pursuant to the terms of both acts, if a court of a sister State has made a custody decree, a court of this State may modify such determination only, if:

[335]*335(1) it has jurisdiction to make such a child custody-determination; and

(2) the court which rendered the decree no longer has jurisdiction or it has declined to exercise such jurisdiction to modify such determination.

Accordingly, when a court of this State is faced with a question as to whether it may properly assume modification jurisdiction, its inquiry must be threefold: first, it must be determined whether or not this court would have jurisdiction to render the decree in the first instance; second, whether or not the rendering State had jurisdiction to do so under provisions in substantial compliance with either the UCCJA or of the PKPA; third, whether or not at the time a second proceeding is commenced in this State, the rendering sister State court no longer had jurisdiction or declined to exercise it.

In defining the circumstances under which the respective States would have jurisdiction, the UCCJA and the PKPA differ. Nevertheless, a complete analysis of both statutes leads the court to conclude that no such modification jurisdiction exists at the present time.

The bases for UCCJA jurisdiction are specifically and exclusively enumerated in section 75-d of the Domestic Relations Law. One of them must be met for this court to exercise jurisdiction herein. (Matter of Potter v Potter, 104 Misc 2d 930.) Section 75-d of the Domestic Relations Law reads in relevant part as follows:

“1. A court of this state which is competent to decide child custody matters has jurisdiction to make a child custody determination by initial or modification decree only when:

“(a) this state (i) is the home state of the child at the time of commencement of the custody proceeding, or (ii) had been the child’s home state within six months before commencement of such proceeding and the child is absent from this state because of his removal or retention by a person claiming his custody or for other reasons, and a parent or person acting as parent continues to live in this state; or

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
115 Misc. 2d 332, 454 N.Y.S.2d 202, 1982 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 3688, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/s-frederick-p-v-barbara-p-nycfamct-1982.