Family Law Newsletter
| Publication year | 1976 |
| Pages | 1825 |
1976, December, Pg. 1825. Family Law Newsletter
Recent decisions reprinted in the weekly BNA Family Law Reporter can have an effect on our practice in Colorado. Some recent decisions of interest are as follows:
Although generally a parent who is entitled to custody under a valid decree of a sister state court should be able to "enforce that right and secure the immediate return of the children"; a Washington State Court of Appeals found that when there are compelling circumstances which indicate that the welfare of the children temporarily in the state is in possible jeopardy, a court may assume jurisdiction over the children and enter "necessary orders for their protection".
We previously mentioned that language which requires a parent to foster or at least not hamper the development of the relationship with the other parent and the child can have some remarkable uses down the line. The Florida Court recently used such language to justify its decision not to allow the mother-custodian to remove the children to California because that would interfere with the visitation rights of the father and presumably would "hamper the natural development of the child's love and respect for the other party".
In another custodial decision of interest, the South Dakota Court ruled that the father could maintain custody of the children, even though he had lived with a woman with the children before he and the woman got married.
Tracing the law of reciprocity back to the U.S. Supreme Court's holding in Hilton vs. Guyot, 159 U.S. 113 (1895), the Minnesota Court found that "the most enlightened thinking in American law has rejected the doctrine of reciprocity". Reciprocity, the Court decided, is not a prerequisite to enforcement of a foreign judgment in Minnesota. Compare this decision with the reciprocal language contained in C.R.S. 14-11-101.
Under the 1976 Tax Reform Act, you should be aware that alimony now becomes an...
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