In Re J.M.N.

2008 WL 2415490 (Tn. Court of Appeals 2008)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

Jerry (H) and Amy (W) were married and had a daughter, Jacy. H and W were divorced. W was designated the primary residential parent for Jacy. H later filed a petition for modification of the decree, seeking to be designated primary residential parent, based in part on W’s mental illness. H’s petition was granted. When Jacy was fourteen H took Jacy for her regular visitation with W. Without notifying H, W took Jacy across the Tennessee/Mississippi state line to the Juvenile Court in Selmer, McNairy County, Tennessee, to enable Jacy to marry her eighteen-year-old boyfriend, Henry. W filled out a preprinted consent affidavit, acknowledging that she is Jacy’s mother, that Jacy’s birth date is August 27, 1991, and that she consented to and joined in the application for marriage between Jacy and Henry. Judge Gray signed the order proffered by the youth services officer. W, Jacy, and Henry did not appear before Judge Gray. They then went to the County Courthouse to apply with the Clerk for a marriage license and to have the marriage ceremony performed. The county clerk’s office accepted an unsigned copy of a proposed Mississippi chancery court order drafted by her attorney, which indicated that she had primary custody of Jacy in lieu of other forms of identification and issued the marriage license. Jacy and Henry were married by the County Court Clerk. W called H and informed him of the good news that Jacy was emancipated and that he no longer had custody of her under the Mississippi chancery court order. H filed a motion in the McNairy County Juvenile Court to set aside Judge Gray’s order authorizing the marriage. H asserted fraud on the court by W. H later modified his position, claiming that the prior order could be set aside based on “good cause being shown,” regardless of any fraud. H also filed a petition in the McNairy County General Sessions Court for annulment of the marriage. The same judge presided over both courts, so the hearings were consolidated. H said that he filed his petition for annulment because he did not believe that it was in Jacy’s best interest to be married at only fourteen years old. W admitted that she had a history of mental illness and said that she suffered from depression. W also disclosed that Jacy might be pregnant (she was not) and that it would be in her best interests to marry the father. W took them to be married in Tennessee to avoid the waiting period associated with the blood test that was required in Mississippi. The judge orally granted H’s motion to set aside the July 27, 2006 order in that it was inappropriate for W to make the decision to allow Jacy to get married at age fourteen without notifying H. The marriage was thus void. W appealed.