Preview:

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF TENNESSEE AT NASHVILLE
August 8, 2008 Session IN RE C.M.C. MICHELLE MARIE CHAFFIN v. CHERYL LEATHERS ET AL.
Appeal from the Juvenile Court for Davidson County No. 00071992 Betty Adams Green, Judge

No. M2008-00329-COA-R3-JV - Filed September 30, 2008

Mother of minor child appeals a juvenile court order rejecting her challenge to the validity of a 2004 order awarding custody of the child to maternal grandparents. Mother argues that the 2004 order is void because she did not receive notice of the proceedings and the order does not contain necessary findings. Mother further argues that the juvenile court erred in failing to give her a full hearing. We have determined that the appealed order arose out of dependency and neglect proceedings and, therefore, must be appealed to the circuit court. Tenn. R. App. P. 3 Appeal as of Right; Appeal Transferred to Circuit Court ANDY D. BENNETT , J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which FRANK G. CLEMENT , JR. and RICHARD H. DINKINS, JJ., joined. Mary B. Langford, Nashville, Tennessee, for the appellant, Michelle Marie Chaffin. James C. Bradshaw III, Nashville, Tennessee, for the appellees, Cheryl Leathers and Roy Leathers. Linda Morgan Anderson, Guardian Ad Litem.

OPINION Michelle Marie Chaffin ("Mother") is the mother of a minor child born in October 2001. A paternity action was filed in the Juvenile Court for Robertson County, and in February 2004, an order was entered establishing paternity and setting the father's child support.1

None of the filings from the parentage action are included in the record on appeal. The contents of the February 2004 order were summarized by the Robertson County Juvenile Court in an order entered on July 14, 2004 regarding the instant custody dispute.

1

In May 2004, Cheryl Leathers and Roy Leathers, the child's maternal grandmother and grandfather ("Grandparents"), filed a Petition for Custody regarding the minor child. In an Amended Petition for Custody filed on June 29, 2004, Grandparents alleged that "there has been a substantial and material change of circumstances affecting the minor child" and that "the mother of the minor child has abandoned the child [at] the home of the Petitioners." On September 10, 2004, the Juvenile Court of Robertson County entered an order awarding custody of the child to Grandparents.2 Mother did not appear at the hearing. The court's findings of fact included the following: Both of the minor child's natural parents . . . have been served with process and are properly before the Court. .... [Grandparents] have cared for the minor child since the Mother's abandonment on May 26, 2004 and have provided her with a stable home environment since her birth. In April 2007, the child's father requested that the case be transferred to Davidson County based upon allegations that neither he, nor the child, nor Grandparents resided in Robertson County and that the child and Grandparents lived in Davidson County. The Juvenile Court for Robertson County ordered that the case be transferred to the Juvenile Court for Davidson County. In May 2007, Mother filed a petition for temporary custody alleging that the minor child was a dependent and neglected child and requesting that Mother be granted sole custody of the child. Grandparents opposed Mother's petition. At an initial appearance before a juvenile court referee in June 2007, Referee O'Neil transferred the case to Referee Carlton Lewis. In his order, Referee O'Neil made the following notation: This Court has reviewed the filing and finds that the initial order of custody placing the child with the grandmother failed to find that the child was [in] imminent risk of harm. There was no allegation of abuse or neglect or prayer that the child be found neglected or dependent. Mother thereafter filed a Motion to Determine Validity of Order asserting that Mother was not properly served with the Grandparents' petition and had no actual notice of the hearing in August 2004, and that the Robertson County order did not find the child to be dependent and neglected or at risk of substantial harm. The motion was heard on August 3, 2007. In an order entered on September 5, 2007, Referee Lewis stated that "the Davidson County Juvenile Court has previously held that the initial order of custody failed to make specific findings of dependency, neglect, or a risk of substantial harm." Referee Lewis ordered that custody of the child be placed with Mother. Grandparents filed a request for rehearing by the juvenile court judge pursuant to Tenn. Code Ann.

Download InReCMC-OPN.pdf

Tennessee Law