Link for opinion: http://www.lexisnexis.com.proxy.msbcollege.edu/hottopics/lnacademic/
Title: Alabama: “Holds that both parents receive joint custody.”
In the case Marsh v. Marsh-Smith, 67 So.3d 100 (Ala. Civ. App. 2011). Parents Percy March and Heather Marsh Smith had joint custody of their daughter and have been divorced since 2005. The custody agreement has functioned well until the mother left Alabama and moved to Lucedale, Mississippi. She only told Mr. Marsh verbally that she was doing so and failed to serve the father with the appropriate written notice of her relocation required by Ala. Code 1975, ʂ 30-3-165 a part of the Alabama Parent-Child Relationship Protection Act. The father, Mr. Marsh appealed with a judgment of the Mobile Circuit court denying his modification of custody. He also filed in the trial court a petition to hold the mother in contempt for failing to properly notify him of her relocation and requested temporary custody of the child until the mother relocated to Alabama. Each parent counter petitioned the other, and each ended up asking of sole custody of their child.
The court affirms that if the mother wants to continue her joint custody rights that she needs to keep her residence in the State of Alabama (Mobile County). By imposing the geographical restrictions on the mother’s exercise of her custodial rights, this rejected the mother’s request that she be allowed to relocate to Lucedale Mississippi. The trial court also denied both mother and father’s request to modify custody. Joint custody remains.
Labels for post: custody, modification, joint custody, sole custody
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