Brannock & Humphries Notches Second Appellate Victory In Ongoing Child Custody Dispute

For the second time in five months, Brannock & Humphries convinced the Third District Court of Appeal to deny a petition challenging a Miami-Dade County trial judge’s rulings in a child custody dispute centering on the mother’s relocation from Florida to Maryland.

As noted when Brannock & Humphries defeated the mother’s first petition last September, the proceedings between the mother and father, who co-parent the child, have become more contentious following the mother’s decision to move with the child from Miami to a D.C. suburb in Maryland.  After the Florida trial judge ordered the child to remain in Florida pending a decision on whether the relocation was permissible and how it would impact the parties’ timesharing and child support obligations, the mother initiated parallel legal proceedings in Maryland and tried to claim that the Florida judge lacked jurisdiction to proceed with the case.  The Third District rejected the mother’s jurisdictional arguments late last year.

The mother then tried to short-circuit the Florida modification proceedings once again, this time arguing that the trial judge was compelled by a prior court order to permit her to relocate with the child.  When the judge denied her request, she filed a petition for writ of mandamus, asking the appellate court to order the judge to “enforce” the prior ruling and allow the child to move.  On behalf of the father, Brannock & Humphries responded to the mother’s arguments and convinced the appellate court to deny her petition.  The Florida proceedings will now be allowed to play out to completion.