Opinion ID: 1817549
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 10

Heading: Parents' Financial Condition

Text: The father claims that the juvenile court erred in sustaining relevance objections to questions regarding the father's and the mother's financial condition, as this evidence was relevant to determine whether Nebraska was an inconvenient forum for the proceedings. Specifically, because the mother lives in Colorado and the father in Alabama and both live on limited incomes, the father claims that traveling to Nebraska to attend hearings would be financially difficult, thereby making Nebraska an inconvenient forum. Evidence is relevant if it has any tendency to make the existence of any fact of consequence to the determination of the action more probable or less probable than it would be without the evidence, or the evidence tends to establish a fact from which the existence or nonexistence of a fact in issue can be directly inferred. Neb.Rev.Stat. § 27-401 (Reissue 1995); Alexander v. Warehouse, 253 Neb. 153, 568 N.W.2d 892 (1997); Benzel v. Keller Indus., 253 Neb. 20, 567 N.W.2d 552 (1997). We determine that the father's claim has merit in that evidence of the parents' financial condition was relevant to one of the issues before the juvenile court, namely, whether Nebraska was an inconvenient forum for the proceedings under the NCCJA. See Van Norman v. Upperman, 231 Neb. 524, 436 N.W.2d 834 (1989). Thus, the juvenile court did abuse its discretion in finding that the evidence was irrelevant to determine whether Nebraska was an inconvenient forum. However, in our de novo review of whether Nebraska was an inconvenient forum to conduct the emergency proceedings, we considered the financial evidence contained in the father's offers of proof and, given the totality of the circumstances, determine that Nebraska was an appropriate forum for these proceedings.