In The Interest of S.R.T., 2006 WL 397946 Tex.App.-San Antonio (2006).
Feb 22, 2006OUTCOME: Successful at Trial and on Appeal (Affirmed)
Mark I. Unger was lead counsel in this case, both at Trial and on Appeal. The facts of this case involve a child custody dispute between a mother, father and the father's and mother's grandparents. ... The law applied dealt with the Uniformed Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act (UCCJEA), adopted in Chapter 152 of the Texas Family Code. The Court held that the Home State of the Child is, as in the statutory definition, "...the state in which a child lived with a parent or a person acting as a parent for at least six consecutive months immediately before the commencement of a child custody proceeding." The Court further held that Commencement is defined by "the filing of the first pleading in a proceeding." The Court additionally and most significantly held that the commencement date cannot be shifted from the date of the first filing to the date of a subsequent or second filing, thereby acquiring the six months necessary to obtain Home State Jurisdiction, by the mere Non-suiting of the first-filed pleading.