In re Jon Kyle McMillan

Summary

The Texas Court of Appeals, Third District, denied Jon Kyle McMillan’s petition for writ of mandamus seeking to compel the trial court to grant his plea to the jurisdiction. The court held that Texas had subject-matter jurisdiction over Kelly MacCord’s challenge to an acknowledgment of paternity under the Uniform Parentage Act, notwithstanding related custody proceedings in Tennessee. The court concluded that the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act did not govern the paternity challenge.

Holdings

1. The UCCJEA did not apply because MacCord's Texas petition challenged an acknowledgment of paternity and did not place legal custody, physical custody, or visitation at issue.
2. Section 160.309(d)'s direction that an AOP challenge be conducted in the same manner as a parentage adjudication refers to procedural matters and does not incorporate the subject-matter-jurisdiction provisions governing parentage adjudications.
3. Texas has subject-matter jurisdiction over MacCord's challenge to the acknowledgment of paternity.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act deprived the Texas court of subject-matter jurisdiction over MacCord's action challenging the acknowledgment of paternity.
2. Whether Texas Family Code section 160.309(d)'s requirement that an acknowledgment-of-paternity challenge be conducted in the same manner as a parentage adjudication incorporates the subject-matter-jurisdiction provisions applicable to parentage adjudications.
3. Whether the Texas court had subject-matter jurisdiction over a challenge to an acknowledgment of paternity executed and filed in Texas.

Disposition

writ_denied