Siraj Khaja Ahmed v. Asma Saman Ahmed

Indiana Court of Appeals·Decided November 30, 2012·No. 64A03-1204-DR-175·Unpublished

Opinion

FILED

Pursuant to Ind.Appellate Rule 65(D), this Memorandum Decision shall not be regarded as precedent or cited Nov 30 2012, 8:44 am

before any court except for the purpose of establishing the defense of res judicata, collateral estoppel, or the law CLERK of the supreme court,

court of appeals and

of the case. tax court

ATTORNEY FOR APPELLANT: ATTORNEY FOR APPELLEE:

BRYAN M. TRUITT PAUL A. LEONARD Bertig & Associates LLC Burke Costanza & Carberry LLP Valparaiso, Indiana Merrillville, Indiana

IN THE

COURT OF APPEALS OF INDIANA

SIRAJ KHAJA AHMED, )

)

Appellant-Petitioner, )

)

vs. ) No. 64A03-1204-DR-175 )

ASMA SAMAN AHMED, )

)

Appellee-Respondent. )

APPEAL FROM THE PORTER SUPERIOR COURT The Honorable Roger V. Bradford, Judge The Honorable Mary A. DeBoer, Magistrate Cause No. 64D01-1109-DR-9161

November 30, 2012

MEMORANDUM DECISION - NOT FOR PUBLICATION

BROWN, Judge

Siraj Khaja Ahmed (“Husband”) appeals the denial of his motion to correct error.

Husband raises one issue, which we revise and restate as whether the trial court abused its discretion in denying his motion to correct error and in granting the motion to dismiss for forum non conveniens filed by Asma Saman Ahmed (“Wife”). We affirm.

The relevant facts follow. Husband and Wife were married in India in 1983 and later moved to the State of Louisiana. Husband and Wife had three children together, J., N., and S., and only S. remains unemancipated.

Husband and Wife moved from Louisiana to LaPorte, Indiana, in 1993 and to Chesterton, Indiana, in 1995. In 2001, Husband and Wife and their children moved from Chesterton to Bridgeview, Illinois, in order for the children to attend an Islamic school. In 2005, Husband and Wife and their children moved back to Chesterton. In 2006, Husband moved to a condominium in Chicago, Illinois. In 2009, Wife and S. moved from Chesterton to the Chicago condominium so that S. could attend an Islamic school, and Husband moved to the Chesterton residence.

On September 21, 2011, Husband filed a petition for dissolution of marriage in the Porter County Superior Court, Indiana, under cause number 64D01-1109-DR-9161 (“Cause No. 161”). On September 30, 2011, Wife filed a petition for dissolution of marriage in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, under cause number 11D-09591 (“Cause No. 591”).1

1 The record does not contain a copy of the chronological case summary (“CCS”) for Cause No.

591.

Husband filed a motion to dismiss Wife’s petition in Cause No. 591 on the basis that an action was pending in the State of Indiana under Cause No. 161 at the time Wife’s petition was filed in Cook County, the Cook County Circuit Court entered an order on December 7, 2011 granting Husband’s motion,2 Wife filed a motion to reconsider the December 7, 2011 order,3 and the court denied Wife’s motion on March 2, 2012.

On December 30, 2011, under Cause No. 161, Wife filed a motion to dismiss for forum non conveniens and a motion to dismiss for lack of proper service in the Porter County Superior Court. In her motion to dismiss for forum non conveniens, Wife argued that she and S. had been domiciled in Chicago since 2009; that the parties had listed their Chesterton residence for sale; that Husband has moved his furniture out of the residence in Chesterton and to an apartment in the Chicago area; that Husband is a physician licensed to practice in Illinois; that other than the Chesterton residence Wife has no contacts with Indiana and that both parties have substantial contacts with Illinois; that Husband directed Wife to relocate to Illinois so that S. could attend school in Illinois; that the case involves issues of Husband’s employment, the location of assets, child support

2 The December 7, 2011 order provided in part:

[T]his Court having reviewed the pleadings and having considered and heard argument from both counsel, and counsel for [Husband] having stipulated that Illinois is the only State with child custody jurisdiction over the minor child, [Husband’s] Motion to Dismiss is granted and [Wife’s] Petition of Dissolution of Marriage filed in Cook County, Illinois, is dismissed.

Appellant’s Appendix at 71, 108.

3 In her motion, Wife argued that, as Husband stipulated and the court’s December 7, 2011 order stated, Illinois is the only State which has jurisdiction over the custody of the parties’ minor child, that there is at least a question of fact as to the parties’ contacts in Illinois which should have precluded dismissal of her dissolution proceedings in Illinois, and that Wife has proceeded in Indiana to ensure that Husband’s divorce action in Indiana would ultimately be dismissed.

and educational expenses, and child custody and parenting time issues, and that evidence pertaining to all these issues is located in Illinois and Husband has already stipulated that Illinois is the only State that can properly exercise child custody jurisdiction; that Husband’s petition under Cause No. 161 presents difficulties of access to sources of proof located outside Indiana; that the center of gravity for the family’s financial activities and educational decisions regarding S. is located in Illinois; and that Husband’s petition in Indiana would deprive Wife of remedies under Illinois law such as spousal support and a calculation of child support under the Illinois child support formula. On January 12, 2012, following a hearing at which the parties presented evidence regarding proper service and Wife testified in part regarding the parties’ activities in Illinois and Indiana during their marriage, the Porter County Superior Court denied Wife’s motion to dismiss for lack of proper service.

On February 9, 2012, Husband filed a response in opposition Wife’s motion to dismiss for forum non conveniens under Cause No. 161 in which he argued that, beginning with the filing of her retaliatory petition, Wife has attempted to escape the Indiana divorce proceedings for unsubstantiated reasons; that the Cook County petition was dismissed and that, as a condition for the dismissal, Husband and Wife agreed that the custody of the couple’s seventeen and a half year old daughter, S., was to fall with Wife; that Husband’s choice of forum is not so inconvenient as to cause a substantial injustice to Wife; that Husband’s choice of forum should be given great weight; that Wife resided in Porter County for fourteen years; that Wife does not currently have employment and is free to travel to and from court proceedings and that conversely

Husband’s medical practice is predominantly in Michigan City, Indiana, and he would be forced to forego work for substantially longer times if the dissolution was adjudicated in Illinois; that a majority of the parties’ marital assets are located in Indiana; that Husband’s earnings are predominantly from his Indiana medical practice; and that child custody is not an issue in the current dissolution and S. will be of majority prior to adjudication of child support issues.

On March 2, 2012, the court held a hearing on Wife’s motion to dismiss for forum non conveniens at which the parties presented evidence, in addition to the evidence presented at the January 12, 2012 hearing, regarding their contacts in the States of Indiana and Illinois and at which Wife testified that S. was scheduled to graduate from high school in May of 2013.

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