Title: THOMAS L. KELLEY V. JENNIFER L. KELLEY

State: wyoming

Issuer: Wyoming Supreme Court

Document:

THOMAS L. KELLEY V. JENNIFER L. KELLEY2005 WY 109118 P.3d 992Case Number: No. 04-242Decided: 09/07/2005
APRIL TERM, A.D. 2005

 
 
THOMAS 
L. KELLEY,

 
 
Appellant

(Plaintiff),

 
 
v.

 
 
JENNIFER 
L. KELLEY,

 
 
Appellee

(Defendant).

 
 

 
 

Representing 
Appellant:

 
 
            
Thomas L. Kelley, pro se.

 
 

Representing 
Appellee:

 
 
            
No appearance.

 
 
 
 
Before 
HILL, C.J., and GOLDEN, KITE, VOIGT, and BURKE, 
JJ.

 
 
            
VOIGT, 
Justice.

 
 
[¶1]      The appellant 
and the appellee were divorced in Carbon 
County, Wyoming, in 1999.  The appellee has lived with the couple's 
children in the State of Colorado since 1998.  On May 12, 2004, the appellant filed in 
the Carbon County District Court a petition to modify the custody provisions of 
the divorce decree.  On November 4, 
2004, pursuant to Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 20-5-108 (LexisNexis 2003), the district 
court declined jurisdiction and dismissed the petition on the ground of forum non conveniens.1  The appellant has filed a pro se appeal from that 
dismissal.

 
 

[¶2]      We summarily 
affirm the district court because the appellant has failed to provide cogent 
argument or citation to pertinent authority.  See Billings v. Wyoming Bd. of Outfitters 
and Professional Guides, 2004 WY 42, ¶ 62, 88 P.3d 455, 477 (Wyo. 
2004) and Kelley v. Watson, 2003 WY 127, ¶ 4, 77 P.3d 691, 692 (Wyo. 2003).  The appellant's brief is merely a list 
of contentions as to why custody should be modified.  No facts or legal arguments are 
presented in regard to the pivotal issue of whether the district court should 
have ceded jurisdiction in favor of Colorado.

 
 
[¶3]      
Affirmed.

 
 

FOOTNOTES

1Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 20-5-108(a) 
states:

 
 
A court which has jurisdiction under 
this act to make an initial decree or a modification decree may decline to 
exercise its jurisdiction any time before making a decree if it finds that it is 
an inconvenient forum to make a custody determination under the circumstances of 
the case and that a court of another state is a more appropriate 
forum.