Case Title: Alexander v. Alexander

Citation: 

Docket Number: 125pc/05

State: maryland

Court: Maryland Supreme Court

Date: 2013-12-30T00:00:00Z

Document:
Circuit Court for Charles County  
Case No. C-98-002171 
IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF 
MARYLAND 
 
No. 125  
 
               September Term, 2005 
 
 
 
KAREN ELLEN ALEXANDER, 
a/k/a KAREN ELLEN MULLINS 
 
v. 
 
        GREGORY LEE ALEXANDER 
 
 
  *Bell, C.J., 
  *Raker, 
  *Wilner, 
  *Cathell, 
    Harrell, 
 Battaglia, 
  Greene, 
  
  
 
JJ. 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
PER CURIAM ORDER 
  
 
 
 
 
 
  
Filed: December 30, 2013 
 
*Bell, C.J.; Raker, Wilner, and Cathell, JJ., 
now retired, participated in the hearing and 
conference of this case while active 
members of this Court; after being recalled 
pursuant to the Constitution, Article IV, 
Section  3A, they also participated in the 
decision in this case. 
 
 
 
KAREN ELLEN ALEXANDER  
* 
IN THE 
a/k/a KAREN ELLEN MULLILNS 
 
 
 
 
 
 
* 
COURT OF APPEALS 
 
v. 
 
 
 
 
 
* 
OF MARYLAND 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
* 
No. 125 
 
GREGORY LEE ALEXANDER  
* 
September Term, 2005 
 
 
PER CURIAM ORDER 
 
 
WHEREAS, a Judgment of Absolute Divorce was entered by the Circuit Court for 
Charles County on December 20, 1999, providing, among other things, for sole custody 
of the parties’ three children to Mrs. Alexander, with specified visitation to Mr. 
Alexander; 
 
WHEREAS, the parties changed their respective residences during the pendency 
of the divorce action in Maryland, Mrs. Alexander (with the children) to Texas and Mr. 
Alexander to Delaware ultimately; 
 
WHEREAS, the parties continued thereafter to litigate aspects of the provisions of 
the Maryland divorce decree in both Maryland and Texas (the latter commencing in 
2002, after the Maryland divorce decree was registered there), including (upon motion of 
Mr. Alexander) an ex parte order of August 8, 2005, entered by the Circuit Court for 
Charles County holding Mrs. Alexander in contempt of the December 20, 1999, 
Maryland judgment for failure to transport the children from Texas to the BWI-Marshall 
Airport in Maryland so that Mr. Alexander could collect them and take them to Delaware 
for visitation purposes; 
-2- 
 
 
WHEREAS, Mrs. Alexander appealed the contempt determination, which is the 
subject of the present case, on the basis that both parties resided outside of Maryland 
since 1998 and had submitted voluntarily their disputes to the jurisdiction of the Texas 
courts by recording the Maryland divorce decree and litigating its enforcement there, thus 
rendering the Circuit Court for Charles County without jurisdiction to enter the ex parte 
contempt order on August 8, 2005; and 
 
WHEREAS, Mrs. Alexander, through counsel, pursued this appeal of the 
contempt order by brief and argument in this Court, without any participation by Mr. 
Alexander; 
 
Now, THEREFORE, it is this   30th  day of  December  2013, by the Court of 
Appeals, 
 
ORDERED SUMMARILY, that the contempt order of the Circuit Court for 
Charles County, dated August 8, 2005, in Alexander v. Alexander, Case No. C-98-2181, 
is hereby vacated.  The underlying Petition for Contempt, in view of In the Interest of 
G.L.A., Jr., E.L.A., and R.R.A., 195 S.W.3d 787, 791-93 (Tex. App. 2006) (holding that, 
where the former wife, a resident of Texas, registers a divorce decree issued by a court in 
Maryland, where the parties were residing when the decree was issued, and asks for its 
enforcement, and the former husband voluntarily submits to the jurisdiction of the Texas 
court, “the [Texas] trial court must enforce the order as required by the Full Faith and 
Credit Clause of the United States Constitution”); see also Maryland Code (2004, 2012 
Repl. Vol.) §§ 9.5-201(a) and 9.5-206(a) of the Family Law Article, was moot.  
Moreover, because the Petition for Contempt was filed by Appellee and the order finding 
-3- 
 
Appellant in contempt was entered by the court after the parties and their children were 
no longer residents of the State of Maryland (the mother and children being residents of 
Texas and the father of Delaware), the Circuit  Court was without jurisdiction to enter it.  
See Harris v. Melnick, 314 Md. 539, 554, 552 A.2d 38 (1988), and cases cited therein 
(noting that “Courts generally give the decree-rendering state a strong presumption of 
continuing modification jurisdiction until all or almost all connection with the parents and 
the child is lost”); Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction & Enforcement Act § 202 cmt. 2, 
9 U.L.A. 673 (1999) (“Continuing jurisdiction is lost when the child, the child’s parents, 
and any person acting as a parent no longer reside in the original decree State.”). 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
cc: 
Patrick R. Hudson, Esq. 
 
P.O. Box 964 
 
Waldorf, Maryland 20604-0964 
 
(Appellant’s Attorney) 
 
 
John E. Ray, Esq. 
 
P.O. Box 130 
La Plata, Maryland 20646 
(Appellee’s former Attorney) 
 
Sharon L. Hancock, 
Clerk of the Court 
Circuit Court for Charles County 
200 Charles Street 
P.O. Box 970 
La Plata, Maryland 20646