Court Opinion

ID: 9686654
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 16:00:14.366395+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:21.172005
License: Public Domain

VANDE WALLE, Justice,
concurring specially.
I concur in the conclusion of the majority opinion reversing the judgment of the trial court and remanding the matter in order that the trial court might consider the issue of “significant connection.”
The majority opinion appears to indicate that the PKPA and UCCJA require that after the children have resided in another State for six months North Dakota courts lose jurisdiction to modify the custody or visitation provisions of the decree. If that is the law, noncustodial parents should be warned that if the divorce decree permits the custodial parent to remove the children from the State or if removal is permitted under Section 14-09-07, N.D.C.C., which requires approval of the trial court in order that the custodial parent may change the residence of the child from this State to another State, the trial court of this State will lose jurisdiction over the matter six months from the time the children are removed from the State and that the courts in the State of residence of the children will henceforth determine what visitation rights the noncustodial parents may exercise. Furthermore, the only issue that the trial court must consider in determining whether or not to permit the custodial parent to change the residence of a child from this State to another State is the best interests of the children. The custodial parent is required to show no exceptional circumstances in order to obtain the approval of the trial court. Burich v. Burich, 314 N.W.2d 82 (N.D.1981).
I am concerned that the PKPA and the UCCJA reduce the issue of jurisdiction to a mathematical formula, i.e., six months’ residence in another State equals a loss of jurisdiction for all purposes. The trial court which, as here, granted the divorce decree and provided that Renae have custody of the children and that Earl have visitation rights should, in my estimation, retain jurisdiction to modify the provisions for visitation, as opposed to custody, when Earl continues to reside in North Dakota and the visitation will take place in North Dakota. Visitation privileges are created to promote the best interests of the child. Burich, supra. It therefore appears to me that the courts of the State in which the divorce decree was granted, in which the noncustodial parent continues to reside and in which the children will be visiting, are in the best position to determine whether or *478not that visitation is in the best interests of the children and whether or not it should be modified.
GIERKE, J., concurs.