Court Opinion

ID: 9936502
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2024-02-09 18:58:11.55075+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:31:47.654196
License: Public Domain

The opinion of the court discusses jurisdiction of the Colbert County Circuit Court and the principle of full faith and credit as if the judgment granting custody of the child to the Casteels resulted from an original exercise of jurisdiction. This ignores its own recitation of the background of the case. The Colbert County Circuit Court had jurisdiction of the matter of custody because it had divorced the parents and entered the first order of custody in May, 1973. It was the original order of custody of the Colbert court that the Florida court modified ex parte upon the petition for writ of habeas corpus of the father.
The petition of the Casteels merely brought the attention of the court to the welfare of the child, a matter of which it had continuing jurisdiction because of its original action. There is no question of full faith and credit actually involved. There should not even be a question of comity, when it is considered that the Florida decree was entered ex parte at a time when the child was physically in the jurisdiction of the Colbert court.
Simply stated, my position is that I would reach the same destination as the majority, but under the facts find no cause for taking their complicated route for arrival.