Background
The parents divorced in West Virginia in 2016 and adopted an agreed parenting plan. The mother relocated with their child to South Carolina immediately after the divorce to be near her parents. The father last contacted or supported the child in June 2017. In early 2025, after eight years without any contact or financial involvement, the mother initiated a stepparent adoption in South Carolina. The father objected and filed a contempt petition in West Virginia family court, seeking to enforce the 2016 parenting plan. The family court refused to relinquish jurisdiction, instead converting the contempt action into a custody modification proceeding and ordering the father telephonic contact with the child three days per week.
The mother appealed, arguing that West Virginia no longer had jurisdiction under the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act (UCCJEA) because the child had resided in South Carolina since 2016 (nearly her entire life), the father had abandoned her completely for eight years, and South Carolina had substantially more evidence regarding the child’s care and welfare.
The Court’s Holding
The Intermediate Court of Appeals vacated the family court’s order and held that West Virginia lost its exclusive, continuing jurisdiction under the UCCJEA. Although West Virginia initially had jurisdiction as the child’s “home state” when the 2016 divorce was finalized, that jurisdiction terminates when neither a significant connection nor substantial evidence concerning the child remains in the state. The court found that the father’s eight-year abandonment—with zero contact, no financial support, and no attempt to pursue parenting time—severed any significant connection the child had to West Virginia. The court emphasized that the relationship between the child and father became “so attenuated” that it could no longer support jurisdiction.
Applying the UCCJEA’s definition of “substantial evidence,” the court reasoned that because the child had resided in South Carolina for more than 80% of her life and the father’s last contact occurred there, South Carolina possessed “the utmost amount of evidence regarding the child’s present and future welfare.” The court stressed that the UCCJEA’s purpose is to concentrate jurisdiction in the state with the maximum evidence about a child’s welfare, and West Virginia no longer satisfied that requirement. Accordingly, the court instructed the family court to relinquish jurisdiction to South Carolina.
Key Takeaways
- Exclusive, continuing jurisdiction under the UCCJEA can be divested when the non-custodial parent’s relationship with the child becomes so attenuated that neither significant connection nor substantial evidence remains in the original decree state.
- Long-term parental abandonment (eight years without contact or financial support) eliminates any significant connection between child and non-custodial parent’s home state.
- The “substantial evidence” requirement means the original decree state must retain more evidence regarding the child’s care, protection, and welfare than alternative states; when the child has spent most of her life in another state, that other state has the requisite evidence.
- Only the original decree state can determine whether it retains or relinquishes exclusive, continuing jurisdiction; other states may not exercise jurisdiction until the original state formally relinquishes it.
Why It Matters
This decision clarifies important limits on a state’s power to retain custody jurisdiction over children who have relocated and spent years in another state. It protects custodial parents and children from having custody proceedings controlled by a remote forum when the non-custodial parent has completely abandoned the child. The court’s emphasis on the UCCJEA’s purpose—ensuring custody decisions are made where the most evidence exists about the child’s welfare—provides practical guidance for multi-state custody disputes. For practitioners, this ruling establishes that simple continued residence of a non-custodial parent in the original decree state does not automatically preserve jurisdiction if that parent has maintained no meaningful contact with the child for years.
The decision also reinforces that stale custody orders cannot be weaponized to block adoptions or modifications in a child’s actual home state. By requiring West Virginia to relinquish jurisdiction, the court enabled the stepparent adoption to proceed in South Carolina, the only state with current involvement in and knowledge of the child’s life.
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