Family Law

For Child Custody Purposes, Can A Parent Reside in More Than One State?

By Ben Stevens

Today, my law partner, Paul MacPhail, addresses the question: whether for child custody purposes, a parent can reside in more than one state?

Yes. Relying on a 1975 case, which held that ?? a person may have only one domicile, but may have several residences?, the Court of Appeals in South Carolina has recently issued an opinion that a parent can be a resident of more than one state for purposes of determining what state can modify a custody order.

This is important because one of the factors for jurisdiction under the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act asks for the court to determine if the child, the child?s parents, or any person acting as parent resides in the state where the last order pertaining to the child was issued.

In this case, the parent and child lived in South Carolina for several years after the last order was issued in Georgia, and the non-custodial parent (mother) had moved to Florida. Mother tried to register the Georgia order in South Carolina and then asked the court to modify the order. Father claimed that while Father and child were living in South Carolina, he also still maintained a residency in Georgia, so Georgia still had jurisdiction over the case.

The Court of Appeals agreed with Father. Even though Father and Child clearly resided in South Carolina, and had been living there for a number of years, Father had also remained a resident of Georgia, where he is registered to vote, owns real estate, holds a Georgia driver?s license, files his income taxes, and remains an enrolled student. Finally, on his student loan application Father listed his permanent city as North Augusta, South Carolina, but his state of legal residence as Georgia.

The case is Russell v. Cox, 2009-SC-0428.212, opinion number 4535, dated April 27, 2009, and you can read it HERE.

Full post as published by SC Family Law Blog on May 20, 2009 (boomark / email).