Case Update (12 Dec 2024): In re Marriage Werdy; The UCCJEA permits a court to decline to exercise jurisdiction in lieu of a more convenient forum
The parties were married in 2010, and have lived with their children in both the USA and the UAE. The Wife moved to Arizona in 2021. In August 2022, both children joined her to live in Arizona. The children then returned to the UAE with their Father in April 2023. In August 2023, the Wife petitioned the courts in Arizona for divorce, custody, and child support. The Father objected to Arizona’s exercising jurisdiction over the children. He filed a similar suit in the UAE in October 2023. Both parties conceded that Arizona had initial child custody jurisdiction at the time of Wife’s filing, because the children had resided with their Mother in Arizona for more than six months, and she filed for custody less than six months after they left and moved to the UAE. In other words, Arizona was the children’s home state, and the Wife filed the lawsuit before six additional months passed after the children’s departure. The UCCJEA provides this six month drag time, since, presumably, the new jurisdiction where the children find themselves had not yet become the children’s new home state. The father didn’t contest Arizona had jurisdiction under this provision of the UCCJEA. However, he argued that despite having jurisdiction, Arizona should decline it in lieu of the UAE, which was a more convenient forum. The Arizona trial court agreed with him, and the Court of Appeals affirmed. A foreign country is treated as a sister-state when applying the UCCJEA’s jurisdictional provisions, but in rare circumstances. The children had been residents of the UAE since 2019, and had lived in the UAE from 2019 until August 2022, at which time they arrived in Arizona. They then moved back to the UAE in April 2023, were in school, and were the subject of ongoing custody proceedings in the UAE involving the active participation of both parents and a “restriction” that prevented the children from being removed from the UAE.
