In re Jordan A. et al.

Summary

The Tennessee Court of Appeals held that the Colorado permanent custody order rendered moot the father’s challenges to Tennessee orders granting telephone visitation to the maternal aunt, uncle, and grandmother. The court affirmed the denial of the father’s abusive civil action claim, concluding that the relatives had not acted primarily to harass or maliciously injure him. The court also affirmed the denial of attorney’s fees and costs.

Holdings

1. The telephone-visitation issues were moot because the Colorado court's permanent custody order extinguished the controversy concerning the Tennessee telephone-visitation orders and left the Tennessee Court of Appeals unable to provide meaningful relief.
2. A claim for abusive civil action must be raised by answer or motion while the civil action remains pending, before entry of final judgment; Father's post-judgment response to a Rule 59 motion was likely untimely and attempted to raise a new theory after judgment.
3. The aunt and uncle were not abusive civil plaintiffs because the record did not show that they filed the action primarily to harass or maliciously injure Father or with any of the prohibited purposes identified by the statute.
4. Father was not entitled to attorney's fees and costs under Tennessee Code Annotated section 29-41-106(b) because he did not establish that the appellees were abusive civil plaintiffs.
5. Tennessee Code Annotated section 36-6-236 did not authorize attorney's fees and costs because this was a child-custody and termination-of-parental-rights proceeding, not an enforcement-related UCCJEA proceeding.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the Tennessee trial court's orders granting telephone visitation to the maternal aunt and uncle and permitting the maternal grandmother to participate remained justiciable after the Colorado court entered a permanent custody order.
2. Whether Father's abusive-civil-action claim was timely and whether the aunt and uncle qualified as abusive civil plaintiffs.
3. Whether Father was entitled to attorney's fees and costs under Tennessee Code Annotated section 29-41-106(b) based on his abusive-civil-action claim.
4. Whether Father was entitled to attorney's fees and costs under Tennessee Code Annotated section 36-6-236 of the UCCJEA.

Disposition

affirmed