Court Opinion

ID: 9857471
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 14:36:14.859664+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:42:33.806088
License: Public Domain

On Petition To Rehear.
Counsel for Mrs. Clothier has filed an earnest petition to rehear containing a number of grounds which will be considered in order.
The first is that the better and more modern rule is that the courts of the state of a child’s residence rather than the state of his domicile should assume jurisdiction to determine his custody. It is necessary to point out only that in the present case, so far as appears, the state of the child’s residence has never undertaken to judicially control his custody. We are, therefore, not called upon to determine the jurisdiction of California courts. We need not say what effect, if any, the present adjudication will have upon the power of the courts of California to determine in the future the question of the child’s custody should he continue to reside there. While there is authority for the view that the courts of either state may have jurisdiction, we need not decide that question. We said in our former opinion: “Where *547there is no outstanding judicial award of custody by a foreign court, the courts are unanimous in holding that even though the children may he physically without the state, power in the court exists to make an award of custody of children domiciled within the state. ’ ’ Emphasis added.
This statement appears in connection with extensive annotations in 9 A. L. R. 20, 442, which see. This is the most recent collation of the authorities hearing on the question and is to be considered the modern view.
It is said we failed to consider the insistence that the $8,500.00 installment note constituted alimony in solido. It was our intention to overrule this insistence. We must adhere to that holding. Under the authorities cited in the opinion, to the extent,it remained unexecuted or unpaid, the obligation could not survive the remarriage of the parties. We do not see that taking security for installments and reducing them to note form instead of relying upon the power of the court to enforce its decree takes the case out of the general rule. The same policy which favors the cancellation of an alimony decree also favors cancellation under the circumstances of this case.
 The third ground of the petition is directed to our holding that the domicile of the child follows that of the father. It is insisted that a different rule obtains since the passage of the Woman’s Emancipation Act, Code, Sections 8460, 8461. We cannot agree. White v. White, 13 Tenn. App. 622, cited in our original opinion was decided after the passage of the Act. It holds that the domicile of the wife is presumed to be that of her husband. If the domicile of the wife and mother is that of the husband and father, it would be anomalous to hold *548that a minor child incapable of choosing a domicile has acquired a new domicile by virtue of being taken by the mother without the father’s consent to another jurisdiction. We think the rule of the authorities cited in our former opinion applies. White v. Bickford, 146 Tenn. 608, 244 S. W. 49, 26 A. L. R. 129, recognizes the rule but holds that it does not control where the custody of the child has been judicially taken from the father and committed to the mother living in another state. We do not find in this case evidence of an intention on the part of the wife to change her domicile notwithstanding the divorce suit. . She has gone from place to place since the separation and the presumption that her domicile when suit was instituted was still in Tennessee where her husband resided has not been overcome.
It is said next that since the case was triable .de novo here the court should have adjudged the question of divided custody. No assignment was directed to this ruling of the Chancellor. The question was not briefed and we were not disposed, upon our own motion, to adjudicate the question without the benefit of the boy’s testimony. It was not our intention to bind the Chancellor on the remand but merely to call attention to general principles and, as said in the concluding portion of the opinion, leave these matters to the future action of the Chancellor. The decree to be here entered should provide that the question may be fully considered on the remand without prejudice.
Finally, it appears the court was under the erroneous impression that the $2,400.00 allowed for support was to stand if Mrs. Clothier returned the child after the decree should become final. It appears, as set forth in the petition to rehear, that the child was to be brought *549before the court within a few days after the trial on pain of cancellation of the allowance. We think this privilege should remain open for a reasonable time to be fixed by the court after the remand and the decree is, accordingly, modified to so provide. Otherwise, the petition is denied and the costs incident to same equally divided.
Hale and Howard, JJ., concur.