Coppedge v. Harding
| Decision Date | 21 November 1985 |
| Docket Number | No. 20862,20862 |
| Citation | 714 P.2d 1121 |
| Parties | Gordon Allyn COPPEDGE and Anna Gloria Coppedge, Petitioners, v. The Honorable Raymond M. HARDING, Fourth Judicial District Judge, and James Henry Hyde and Gail Ann Coppedge Hyde, Respondents. |
| Court | Utah Supreme Court |
Suzanne Marelius, Salt Lake City, for petitioners.
David L. Wilkinson, Atty. Gen., Salt Lake City, Lynn D. Wardle, Provo, Jay W. Fitt, Orem, for respondents.
On March 19, 1985, Gordon and Anna Coppedge, petitioners in this action, requested that the circuit court of Washington County, Oregon, make them guardians of Jason Allyn Hyde, their ten-year-old grandson who was residing with them in Oregon. In re Jason Allyn Hyde, No. J 13-259 (Circuit Court of Washington County, Oregon). The Oregon court granted the guardianship petition on July 1, 1985, and appointed the Coppedges as Jason's guardians until his twenty-first birthday, subject to review in one year from the date of the order.
Jason's parents, James and Gail Hyde, respondents herein, are residents of Utah. On advice of counsel, who informed them that the Oregon court had no jurisdiction, the Hydes did not appear in the Oregon action, although they were notified of the pendency of the guardianship petition. On May 9, 1985, while the guardianship petition was pending, the Hydes instituted an action against the Coppedges in the district court in Utah County, Utah. Hyde v. Coppedge, No. 69556 (Fourth Judicial District Court of Utah County, Utah, filed May 9, 1985). In that action, the Hydes are seeking to obtain custody of Jason. The Hydes also assert numerous tort claims against the Coppedges and seek compensatory and punitive damages.
The Coppedges moved to dismiss the Utah action on June 11, 1985. Before the Utah court had ruled on the Coppedges' motion, the Hydes moved on August 13, 1985, for a temporary restraining order directing the Coppedges to return custody of Jason to the Hydes. The Utah court granted the temporary restraining order on August 13, 1985, and on August 23rd denied the Coppedges' motion to dismiss. On August 29, 1985, the Coppedges filed a petition with this Court for a writ of mandamus, asking that we direct the district court to dismiss the action filed by the Hydes, dissolve the temporary restraining order, and order the return of Jason to Oregon.
We have heard argument and have considered the extensive filings of the parties and conclude as follows: that the Oregon court had jurisdiction over Jason Hyde under section 3 of the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act, which has been enacted in Oregon as Or.Rev.Stat. §§ 109.700 to .930 (1983); that respondents James and Gail Ann Hyde were properly served with notice of the Oregon proceeding under section 5 of the Uniform Act and were provided an opportunity to be heard by the Oregon court, an opportunity they declined to exercise; that the Oregon court's assumption of jurisdiction to enter an order instituting a guardianship over Jason Hyde did not violate the due process clause of the fourteenth amendment to the United States Constitution; that under section 6 of the Uniform Act, enacted in Utah as section 78-45c-6 of the Code, the Utah district court was required to stay the Utah proceeding to the extent that the Hydes sought an order determining the custody of Jason under the provisions of the Uniform Act and to communicate with the Oregon court as soon as it was apprised of the prior Oregon proceeding "to the end that the issues may be litigated in the more appropriate forum"; that the Utah court did not take these statutorily required steps; that on the basis of the facts made known to it, the Oregon court exercised jurisdiction over Jason Hyde "substantially in conformity" with the Uniform Act and, therefore, under section 78-45c-6(1), the Utah court should not have exercised jurisdiction over the matter unless the Oregon court, after having been contacted by the Utah court, had first stayed its proceeding in favor of Utah, as contemplated by section 6(1), or until the Oregon court had an opportunity to consider and determine the claims of respondents Hyde that Oregon should not exercise jurisdiction under the Uniform Act for any reason; that if the Oregon court continues in its exercise of jurisdiction over Jason Hyde after being presented with respondents Hyde's contentions, there will be ample opportunity for the Utah court to look further into the question of whether, on the facts made known to it, the Oregon court has exercised jurisdiction "substantially in conformity with" the Uniform Act, as contemplated by sections 78-45c-6(1) and 78-45c-8 of the Code, and whether the Oregon court's order is subject to modification under section 78-45c-14.
Based on the foregoing, the district court is ordered to stay the Utah action to the extent that it seeks to determine custody under the Uniform Act. The district court is further ordered to communicate with the Oregon court, as required by section 78-45c-6(3) of the Code, to determine the propriety of further proceedings in Oregon. In the event that the Oregon court stays its proceedings after such communication, then the Utah court may proceed to adjudicate the custody matter.
The need for prompt action in this matter requires the immediate issuance of this order. Opinions will follow.
This case presents the question of whether married natural parents who have never been declared unfit parents, who have not abandoned their child, and who sent their child out of state voluntarily and temporarily to live with its grandparents for a school year can either be deprived of the custody of their child by a court of the other state or forced to litigate their custody rights in that other state's court.
This matter is before this Court on a petition for a writ of mandamus. The petition requests this Court to order the Fourth District Court of Utah County to dismiss an action in which the natural parents living in Utah seek to reestablish their custodial rights over their son, Jason Allyn Hyde, a minor. Jason was visiting with his grandparents in Oregon with his parents' consent. During his visit, the grandparents filed a petition in an Oregon court for appointment as Jason's guardians. The parents did not answer or appear in the Oregon action. The Oregon court in a default judgment awarded the grandparents custody of Jason and appointed them his guardians until he reached 21 years or the court ordered otherwise. It thereby, for practical purposes, terminated the parental rights of Jason's parents on what I believe is a usurpation of power and a total absence of a factual foundation that the parents are unfit or have neglected or abandoned their child. See In re J.P., Utah, 648 P.2d 1364 (1982).
The majority in effect holds that an Oregon court can terminate, the parental rights of Jason's natural parents and grant custodial rights to the boy's grandparents. I dissent from this Court's order because (1) under properly applied constitutional standards, the Oregon court has no jurisdiction, and (2) the Oregon court had no statutory jurisdiction under the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act (UCCJA).
In August, 1983, Jason Hyde, age nine, by mutual arrangement between his grandparents, the Coppedges, and his parents, the Hydes, went to Oregon to live with the grandparents during the 1983-84 school year. To facilitate this arrangement, his parents executed a revocable power of attorney to enable the grandparents to fully care for Jason while he was staying with them.
At the end of the school year, Jason returned to Utah for the summer. Under arrangements similar to the previous year, he returned to Oregon in August, 1984. In September, 1984, the parents learned that the grandparents did not intend to return Jason to Utah at the end of the 1984-85 school year. They demanded that the grandparents return Jason to Utah immediately. The grandparents refused, but eventually they reaffirmed their agreement to return Jason to his parents at the end of the school year, so the parents agreed to allow Jason to remain in Oregon until then.
In early March, 1985, the grandparents informed the parents that Jason would not be returned at the end of the school year. The parents again demanded Jason's return, and the grandparents again refused. On March 19, 1985, the grandparents filed a petition for appointment as Jason's guardians in the Juvenile Department of the Oregon Circuit Court for Washington County. In response to the grandparents' consistent refusal to agree to relinquish Jason at the end of the school year, his parents, on May 9, 1985, commenced an action in Utah's Fourth District Court seeking to compel the grandparents to return Jason. 1 Meanwhile, the hearing on the grandparents' Oregon petition was set for hearing on June 19, 1985. The parents were notified of the hearing, but on advice of counsel that the Oregon court did not have jurisdiction, they did not answer or appear. The Oregon court, without giving notice to the Utah court, thereupon entered an order stating that "Gordon Allyn Coppedge and Anna Gloria Coppedge, the maternal grandparents, are awarded the care, custody and control of Jason Allyn Hyde;" and appointed the grandparents "general guardians of the person of Jason Allyn Hyde, the above-named minor child, until further order of the Court or until said minor child attains the age of twenty-one years, whichever first occurs,...." The order also provided for a status report on Jason in approximately one year.
When the grandparents continued to refuse to allow Jason to return to his family, his parents, in August, 1985, obtained a ten-day temporary restraining order in a Utah court directing the grandparents to return Jason to Utah. The Utah district court conducted a hearing on a motion brought by the grandparents to dismiss the parents' action under the Utah version of the UCCJA, U.C.A., 1953, ...
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... ... Emergency jurisdiction under section 78-45c-3(1)(c) is reserved for extraordinary circumstances. See Coppedge v. Harding, 714 P.2d 1121, 1129 (Utah 1985) (Stewart, J., dissenting) ("[t]he UCCJA Commissioners intended this provision to have a very limited ... ...
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... ... § 78-45c-8(2) (1992) ... Utah case law also illustrates the existence of concurrent jurisdiction. In Coppedge v. Harding, 714 P.2d 1121 (Utah 1985), an action was filed by the Coppedges in Oregon, to make them guardians of their grandson, who was living with ... ...
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... ... In re Interest of M.L.K., 13 Kan.App.2d 251, 768 P.2d 316, 319 (1989); Coppedge v. Harding, 714 P.2d 1121, 1125 (Utah 1985); McAtee v. McAtee, 323 S.E.2d 611, 617 (W.Va.1984); Hudson v. Hudson, 35 Wash.App. 822, 670 P.2d 287, ... ...
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...holding that it had concurrent jurisdiction. Id. at 1276-77. Also instructive is the Utah Supreme Court's holding in Coppedge v. Harding, 714 P.2d 1121 (Utah 1985), a post-UCCJA case. In that case, an action was filed by the Coppedges in Oregon, to make them guardians of their grandson, who......