Title: Ex Parte STS
Citation: 806 So. 2d 336
Docket Number: 1991928
State: Alabama
Issuer: Alabama Supreme Court
Date: May 11, 2001

806 So. 2d 336 (2001)
Ex parte S.T.S.
(In re S.T.S. v. C.T.)
1991928.

Supreme Court of Alabama.
May 11, 2001.
*337 Troy Grayson, Birmingham, for petitioner.
Donald R. Hamlin, Pell City, for respondent.
LYONS, Justice.
S.T.S. ("the father") appealed to the Court of Civil Appeals from a judgment in which the trial court awarded custody of N.S., his minor child, to C.T., the child's maternal grandmother ("the grandmother"). The Court of Civil Appeals, on May 12, 2000, affirmed the judgment, without an opinion. S.T.S. v. C.T. (No. 2990389), 795 So. 2d 853 (Ala.Civ.App.2000) (table). We granted the father's petition for certiorari review. We reverse and remand.
This is the second time the Court of Civil Appeals has considered this case. The father first appealed from an earlier judgment awarding custody of N.S. to the grandmother. See S.T.S. v. C.T., 746 So. 2d 1017 (Ala.Civ.App.1999). According to that opinion, the father and P.T. ("the mother") lived together for several years, but never married. Two children were born during that timeS.S. in 1981 and N.S. in 1987. The mother and the father separated in 1988. By mutual consent, the father took S.S. to live with him and the mother took N.S. to live with her. While the mother had custody of N.S., the child lived in various places, including the home of the grandmother who now has custody of him, the home of his paternal grandmother, and the home of an aunt and uncle. N.S. also lived with his father while he attended his first or second year of school.
In October 1996, while N.S. and his brother S.S. both were living with the mother, they were charged with truancy because they were not attending school. N.S.'s probation officer testified that the father became involved in the child's juvenile case and ensured that N.S. complied with the requirements of a consent judgment entered in that case. N.S. went to live with the father in May 1997. S.S. returned to the father's home also.
In May 1997, the mother filed a paternity action to establish S.T.S.'s paternity of S.S. and N.S. and to obtain child support from him. (It is apparent that at some point before October 1998, the trial court determined that S.T.S. is N.S.'s father. S.T.S. does not contest paternity.) The father moved for a custody determination, because both children were then living with him. The grandmother intervened to seek custody of N.S., alleging that she had *338 been the child's primary caretaker. The trial court allowed the grandmother to intervene, and in July 1997 it awarded temporary custody of N.S. to the grandmother. In August 1997, N.S. left the father's home and went to live with the grandmother, pursuant to the temporary custody order.
In October 1998, the trial court entered a judgment ("the 1998 judgment") in which it found that N.S. was a "dependent child," as that term is defined for purposes of juvenile proceedings in this State (see § 12-15-1(10), Ala.Code 1975); that neither of the parents was "suited to maintain custody of the minor child" and that both parents had relinquished custody of the child; that awarding custody to the grandmother "would promote the best interest and welfare" of the child and that removing custody from the grandmother "would be disruptive and detrimental to the child's welfare"; and that both parents had the ability to pay child support. The trial court awarded permanent custody of N.S. to the grandmother, established a visitation schedule, and calculated child support due from both parents.
The father appealed from the 1998 judgment to the Court of Civil Appeals. The Court of Civil Appeals reversed that judgment and remanded for further proceedings. The court stated:
746 So. 2d  at 1020-21 (emphasis added). Neither party sought further review of the Court of Civil Appeals' opinion on the first appeal.
On remand, without considering any additional evidence or holding any other proceedings, and notwithstanding the conclusions drawn by the Court of Civil Appeals as to the record before it, the trial court entered a revised judgment, in January 2000 ("the 2000 judgment"), again awarding custody of N.S. to the grandmother. The 2000 judgment states:
(Emphasis added.)
The father again appealed to the Court of Civil Appeals, but as to the 2000 judgment the Court of Civil Appeals affirmed, without an opinion. The father petitioned this Court for certiorari review, arguing that in the 2000 judgment the trial court again failed to apply the correct standard in determining custody of N.S., and, therefore, that the Court of Civil Appeals' affirmance of the 2000 judgment conflicts with Ex parte D.J., 645 So. 2d 303 (Ala.1994); Ex parte Terry, 494 So. 2d 628 (Ala.1986); and Ex parte Mathews, 428 So. 2d 58 (Ala. 1983), all of which deal with the presumptive right of a parent to the custody of his or her child, as opposed to a nonparent's right to custody. We granted certiorari review solely to consider whether the trial court erred in awarding custody of N.S. to *341 the grandmother.[1]
This Court, in Ex parte Terry, supra, established the standard a trial court must apply in a custody dispute between a parent and a nonparent:
494 So. 2d  at 632 (quoting Ex parte Mathews, 428 So. 2d  at 59.) A child's being born to unmarried parents does not affect the Terry presumption in favor of the biological parent.
Ex parte D.J., 645 So. 2d  at 306. The Terry presumption in favor of the parent in a custody dispute with a nonparent does not apply if the parent has voluntarily relinquished custody or if the court has entered a prior judgment removing custody from the parent, but neither of those exceptions is applicable here. Id.
The issues decided by an appellate court become the law of the case on remand to the trial court, and the trial court is not free to reconsider those issues. Murphree v. Murphree, 600 So. 2d 301 (Ala.Civ.App.1992). According to the doctrine of the law of the case, "whatever is once established between the same parties in the same case continues to be the law of that case, whether or not correct on general principles, so long as the facts on which the decision was predicated continue to be the facts of the case." Blumberg v. Touche Ross &amp; Co., 514 So. 2d 922, 924 (Ala.1987). In its 1999 opinion, the Court of Civil Appeals concluded that this case does not involve a dependency adjudication, that no evidence in the record supports a conclusion that the father relinquished the custody of N.S. or that the father is an unfit parent, and that the father never lost his prima facie right to custody of N.S. according to Terry. Because the trial court entered the 2000 judgment on the same record as that before the Court of Civil Appeals, the facts on which the Court of Civil Appeals' decision was predicated continue to be the facts of the case, and, therefore, the Court of Civil Appeals' conclusions in its 1999 *342 opinion are the law of the case. The trial court's duty on remand was "to comply with the appellate mandate according to the true intent and meaning of the mandate as determined by the reviewing court's directions." Ex parte McWhorter, 716 So. 2d 720, 722 (Ala.Civ.App.1998). Accordingly, the trial court erred in concluding that the child was "dependent," that the father had "relinquished his custodial rights" to the child, and that the father was "unfit to care for" the child.
Absent a finding that the father voluntarily forfeited custody of the child or that the father was unfit to have the custody of the child, both of which findings are contrary to the law of the case, the grandmother cannot overcome the Terry presumption in favor of the father and the trial court's 2000 judgment awarding custody of N.S. to the grandmother cannot stand. Therefore, the Court of Civil Appeals erred in affirming the 2000 judgment. Our decision as to the 2000 judgment does not preclude the grandmother from filing a petition to modify custody if she has new evidence concerning the father's fitness as a parent, but we emphasize that in any subsequent proceedings the trial court must apply the Terry standard. In addition, the grandmother must bear the burden of proving not only that a custody modification would materially promote the child's best interests and welfare, but also that the benefits of modifying custody would more than offset the disruptive effect of uprooting the child. See Ex parte McLendon, 455 So. 2d 863 (Ala.1984).
We reverse the judgment of the Court of Civil Appeals and remand the cause for that court to instruct the trial court to award custody of N.S. to the father.
REVERSED AND REMANDED WITH INSTRUCTIONS.
MOORE, C.J., and SEE, BROWN, JOHNSTONE, HARWOOD, and WOODALL, JJ., concur.
HOUSTON, J., concurs in the result.
STUART, J., dissents.
[1]  During the course of these proceedings, the father filed with this Court a motion to stay a child-support order entered by the trial court, as well as a petition for a writ of mandamus requesting that we direct the trial court to revoke orders finding the father in contempt for nonpayment of child support. The father contended in both the motion to stay and the petition for the writ of mandamus that the trial court's child-support order was incorrect. The father's certiorari petition deals solely with the issue of N.S.'s custody; therefore, we denied both the motion and the mandamus petition. See Ex parte S.T.S. (No. 1000274, December 8, 2000), ___ So.2d ___ (Ala.2000) (table) (denying petition for writ of mandamus).