Tillman v. Smith

CourtCourt of Appeals of Arizona
DecidedAugust 7, 2025
Docket1 CA-CV 24-0360-FC
StatusUnpublished

This text of Tillman v. Smith (Tillman v. Smith) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Arizona primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Tillman v. Smith, (Ark. Ct. App. 2025).

Opinion

NOTICE: NOT FOR OFFICIAL PUBLICATION. UNDER ARIZONA RULE OF THE SUPREME COURT 111(c), THIS DECISION IS NOT PRECEDENTIAL AND MAY BE CITED ONLY AS AUTHORIZED BY RULE.

IN THE ARIZONA COURT OF APPEALS DIVISION ONE

In re the Matter of:

ERICA NICOLE TILLMAN, Petitioner/Appellant,

v.

LYMAN MORRIS SMITH, Respondent/Appellee.

No. 1 CA-CV 24-0360 FC FILED 08-07-2025

Appeal from the Superior Court in Maricopa County No. FC2015-091669 The Honorable Christopher Coury, Judge The Honorable Adele Ponce, Judge The Honorable Keith A. Miller, Judge

AFFIRMED IN PART; VACATED AND REMANDED IN PART WITH INSTRUCTIONS

COUNSEL

Pangerl Law Firm, P.L.L.C., Phoenix By Regina M. Pangerl Counsel for Petitioner/Appellant

Austin R. Martineau Law, Mesa By Austin R. Martineau Counsel for Respondent/Appellee TILLMAN v. SMITH Decision of the Court

MEMORANDUM DECISION

Presiding Judge Brian Y. Furuya delivered the decision of the Court, in which Judge Samuel A. Thumma and Judge Daniel J. Kiley joined.

F U R U Y A, Judge:

¶1 Erica Nicole Tillman (“Mother”) appeals from the superior court’s 2024 order modifying legal decision-making, parenting time, and child support. For the following reasons, we affirm in part and vacate and remand in part.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

¶2 Lyman Morris Smith (“Father”) and Mother divorced in December 2015 after 9 years of marriage. At the time, both parties and their minor child (“Child”) resided in Arizona. The court found Arizona to be Child’s “home state” under Arizona Revised Statute (“A.R.S.”) § 25-1031.

¶3 The parties’ dissolution decree (“Decree”) awarded Mother sole legal decision-making authority (“LDM”) based on a history of domestic violence, see A.R.S. § 25-403.03, and Father’s ongoing behavioral health struggles. The Decree provided that Child would reside primarily with Mother, awarding Father parenting time on a gradually increasing basis. The Decree provided Father a graduated parenting-time schedule under A.R.S. § 25-403.02(E), which he never fully exercised.

¶4 The Decree required Father to pay child support, communicate regarding Child’s health matters, and prohibited parents from relocating Child more than 100 miles or out of Arizona without mutual consent or court approval. See A.R.S. § 25-408(A).

¶5 By 2018, Father had relocated to Maryland but occasionally returned to Arizona—specifically to his mother’s home—to exercise parenting time. Meanwhile, Mother lived in Chandler with Child and her partner.

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¶6 Over time, Father’s visits to Arizona became increasingly sporadic, and he often provided minimal notice to Mother of his intent to exercise parenting time, causing significant schedule disruptions.

¶7 In March 2019, Mother filed a “Verified Petition to Modify Parenting Time and Child Support” (“March 2019 Petition”). She requested the court order Father to disclose his parenting time dates in advance, to modify the parenting plan accordingly, and to adjust child support if warranted. In response, Father requested a modification of parenting time to account for his relocation to Maryland but did not initially request a modification of LDM.

¶8 In June 2019, Father filed a dual-captioned document that both requested temporary orders and modification of LDM to be joint. In his request, Father alleged Mother had committed domestic violence against him in the presence of Child. At a July 2019 hearing regarding temporary orders, Mother described an escalating pattern of conflict, including a domestic incident by Father involving her partner. Later that month, the court entered temporary orders awarding the parties joint LDM and establishing a new parenting plan in light of Father’s relocation to Maryland.

¶9 Child was later diagnosed with ADHD, dysgraphia, and developmental coordination disorder. After receiving the diagnosis, Mother coordinated a neuropsychological evaluation and sought to obtain school accommodations for Child. Father refused to participate in the evaluation or complete the required paperwork and effectively delayed Child from receiving special education services for more than a year. In February 2022, Mother filed an emergency motion for temporary orders requesting sole LDM to resolve these impasses. After a hearing in May 2022, the court denied the motion and maintained the joint LDM provision of the July 2019 temporary orders.

¶10 Resolution of Mother’s March 2019 Petition was delayed for a variety of reasons. As relevant here, by mid-2022 Mother notified the court that she was relocating to California for graduate school and was taking Child with her. Father, who became aware of the relocation when his counsel received a copy of the notification, objected to the move and contacted law enforcement, though the record does not reflect any action taken.

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¶11 In September 2022, Mother asked the court to relinquish jurisdiction because neither parent nor Child resided in Arizona. See A.R.S. §§ 25-1032(A), -1037. The court, in a minute entry entered later in September, stated it would treat Mother’s filing as a motion to dismiss. At a November 2022 hearing, Wife conceded that Arizona courts had continuing exclusive jurisdiction. She nonetheless indicated her intent to initiate proceedings in California, and asked the court to make a finding under Section 25-1037 that Arizona is an inconvenient forum because none of the relevant parties continued to reside here. However, the court declined to dismiss the matter, expressly refusing to relinquish jurisdiction. The court reasoned that holding a trial to enter final orders served Child’s best interests, would bring closure to an unduly drawn-out custody dispute, and would prevent Mother from severing Father’s relationship with Child.

¶12 In April 2023, Mother asked the court to hold a conference under Arizona’s version of the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act (“UCCJEA”), A.R.S. §§ 25-1001. The court scheduled such a conference for May 2023. However, the California judicial officer was unavailable at that time, and the conference was never rescheduled.

¶13 After the case was administratively reassigned due to extended time between proceedings, Mother requested that the Arizona court determine whether the parties resided in Arizona and delay proceedings until the UCCJEA issue was resolved. In September 2023, those motions were denied.

¶14 In February 2024, the court held the final trial on Mother’s March 2019 Petition. At this time, the court found that Father’s primary residence was Maryland and Mother’s primary residence was California, but also found the evidence introduced at trial was insufficient to find that Father’s domicile was Maryland. It determined that because “Arizona was the child’s home state on the date that the current petition was filed [March 2019], and the most recent legal decision-making and parenting time determinations with respect to the child were made by an Arizona court, [the Arizona superior court] has continuing jurisdiction over legal decision- making and parenting time determinations.”

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Tillman v. Smith, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tillman-v-smith-arizctapp-2025.