Failure To Register Foreign Judgment

Boston v. Franklin, [Ms. 2200249, Oct. 29, 2021] __ So. 3d __ (Ala. Civ. App. 2021). The court (Moore, J.; Thompson, P.J., and Edwards, Hanson, and Fridy, JJ., concur) reverses the Geneva Circuit Court’s denial of the father’s Rule 60(b)(4) motion in a proceeding filed by the father seeking to establish his paternity and award him custody of two children. The mother responded that paternity of the children had been established by a prior Tennessee judgment which ordered the father to pay child support and argued that the father’s Geneva County action should be treated as a motion to modify custody. The trial court agreed and ordered that the McClendon standard had not been met but awarded the father visitation. The court reverses denial of the Rule 60(b)(4) motion “[b]ecause the Tennessee judgment was not registered in accordance with the UCCJEA or the UIFSA, the trial court did not acquire jurisdiction over the father’s complaint. Thus, the trial court’s September 24, 2020, judgment is void, and the trial court erred in denying the father’s Rule 60(b)(4) motion for relief therefrom.” Ms. *8.

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