Case Update (26 July 2024): Baez v. Solano; Mexico has continuing exclusive jurisdiction, therefore SC cannot modify the Mexican custody order

The parties were divorced in Mexico in 2015. The Mexican court adjudicated the child’s custody and awarded “joint custody” of the child to Mother and Father (although the Mother stated that she never received a written order from the Mexican courts). The Father remained in Mexico. The Mother and child ultimately took up residence in South Carolina. The Mother filed a complaint in the South Carolina family court seeking “a decree stating that she is to have custody” of the parties’ child, and “requesting the family court make the additional findings necessary for Child to pursue SIJ status.” The Father “answered the complaint and agreed with Mother’s statement of facts and her request for custody.”

In other words, in this case, the Mother needed a subsequent/distinct custody order in South Carolina where she was residing with the child to seek Special Immigrant Juvenile Status. The Father consented - to her residence in South Carolina, to her having custody, and to the South Carolina courts issuing such an order.

Pursuant to the UCCJEA, as enacted in South Carolina, Mexico has continuing exclusive jurisdiction to modify its existing custody order, and therefore, the South Carolina court had no jurisdiction to take up the case and modify the existing order.

The trial court dismissed the case for lack of jurisdiction. The Court of Appeals of South Carolina affirmed. Parents cannot confer subject matter jurisdiction on a court by agreement.