This case is a custody dispute involving an appeal from an interlocutory order entered in the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County in which the court ruled that it had jurisdiction to determine the custody of the partiesÆ minor child. The court found Maryland was the childÆs home state and the most convenient forum to decide the custody issue. A court in Tennessee had previously ruled that Tennessee was the childÆs home state and the most convenient forum to determine the custody issues. The Court of Special Appeals held that the Circuit Court in Maryland erred in assuming jurisdiction without first considering Mr. GruberÆs argument that the Maryland court should have declined to exercise jurisdiction because Ms. Gruber engaged in reprehensible conduct.
-A court In Tennessee ruled that Tennessee was the childÆs home and should have jurisdiction over the custody issues
ûThe Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County ruled Maryland was the childÆs home state and that it had jurisdiction to determine the custody issues.
ûwhether, by suggesting that æonly in the most extraordinary circumstancesÆ should a parent that has purportedly engaged in æreprehensible conductÆ be allowed to obtain relief from a Maryland court, the Court of Special Appeals has improperly deprived the Circuit Court of the discretion to exercise jurisdiction over a custody dispute as permitted under #9-208.
-No existing degree - if the petitioner for an initial decree has wrongfully taken the child from another state or has engaged in similar reprehensible conduct, the court may decline to exercise jurisdiction if this is just and proper under the circumstances.
-Existing decree - unless required in the interest of the child, the court shall not exercise its jurisdiction to modify a custody decree of another state if the petitioner, without consent o
...