Opinion ID: 1172041
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: the procedural history of the cases

Text: The parties are the parents of two minor children. Divorced in Arizona in 1978, they were awarded joint custody. Four months after the divorce, custody was changed to the paternal grandparents. Following several more forensic battles, custody was eventually returned to the mother with visitation provisions made in favor of the father. The mother left Arizona in October or November of 1982 without the father's knowledge or consent. Shortly thereafter the Arizona court found the mother in contempt and issued a bench warrant for her arrest. Temporary custody of the children was then awarded to the father who was unable to learn of their whereabouts until March 1984.
The father's quest for custody was by habeas corpus brought in the Oklahoma court. His claim was based on the Arizona bench warrant and temporary custody award. He sought to take the children back to Arizona where litigation over their custody could be continued. Although the writ was granted April 3, 1984, its enforcement was stayed for 30 days to allow the mother to go to Arizona with the children and to litigate her custody claim in that forum. In the event she failed to comply with the court's directive, custody of the children was to be given to the father. The mother's timely request for reconsideration [1] of this ruling was denied July 11, 1984 and she was again directed to seek relief in Arizona.
The day of the habeas corpus hearing the mother filed a petition to have the trial court assume jurisdiction and determine her claim for custody. In its April 3, 1984 order granting the writ the trial court refused to assume jurisdiction of the mother's quest for a custody contest. Reconsideration of this ruling also was denied July 11, 1984.
The mother next sought to have the children adopted by her present husband without the natural father's consent. The trial judge initially arrested further adoption proceedings until the Arizona court could determine the custody and jurisdictional contests. On August 31, 1984 he rendered judgment for the father declaring that the trial court lacked jurisdiction to decide the children's eligibility for a consentless adoption.
Lastly, the mother sought to have the three separate proceedings treated as companion cases and to have issues common to all three certified for immediate review. The district court acceded to this request and on August 31, 1984 certified the cases under a stay of the habeas corpus order for an additional 30-day period. At the end of this limit, custody of the children was to be returned to the father if the mother did not take them to Arizona or obtain a longer stay order from the Oklahoma Supreme Court.
Because the record of the trial court proceedings was in dispute and fraught with ambiguities, [2] we authorized the mother to seek clarification by correction nunc pro tunc in a proceeding ordered to be conducted by the trial judge as this court's special master. The trial judge's authority to act was limited to matters contained in our October 24, 1984 order. [3] We sought to have him determine whether the writ had in fact been granted on April 3, 1984 and later withdrawn by the July 11, 1984 order. After a hearing, the trial court clarified the record by finding that its April 3, 1984 writ had not been modified by the later July 11, 1984 ruling. There is nothing on this record to indicate error in the trial judge's nunc pro tunc findings. No contention is advanced by either party that the correction order is contrary to the proof adduced at the special master's hearing. The findings are clearly supported by the record entry of the writ's issuance, and the special master's ruling that the writ had not been withdrawn also stands uncontradicted either by the record or by testimony. In short, the record viewed in its entirety leaves us free from doubt that the writ had been issued on April 3, 1984 and remained undisturbed by the trial court's July 11, 1984 order. While legal soundness of a trial judge's mid-appeal nunc pro tunc record correction ordered by this court is open to challenge either on motion or by an amended petition-in-error, [4] neither party here has sought corrective relief from the special master's findings. There is hence no contest about its validity or correctness.