In the Matter of the Marriage of Meilyn Rutz Danski De Oliveira and Edrey Clarence Oliveira and in the Interest of S.L.D.O., a Child, 13-24-00325-CV, July 02, 2026.
On appeal from County Court at Law No. 6 of Hidalgo County, Texas
Synopsis
Texas retained initial child-custody jurisdiction under Family Code § 152.201(a)(1) because Texas had been the child’s home state within six months before suit was filed, and a parent continued to reside in Texas. The Thirteenth Court treated the child’s time outside Texas as temporary absences for UCCJEA purposes, allowing the prior Texas residence to satisfy the home-state analysis despite intervening stays in West Virginia, Florida, and Brazil.
Relevance to Family Law
This opinion matters in Texas divorce and SAPCR practice because it reinforces a recurring but heavily litigated UCCJEA point: home-state jurisdiction does not evaporate simply because a child has been moved through multiple locations shortly before filing. For family-law litigators, De Oliveira is especially useful in cases involving cross-border movement, marital separation travel, short-term relocations to relatives’ homes, or strategic pre-suit forum maneuvering. It also highlights the importance of building a record on temporary absences, domicile, prior residence, and the six-month lookback period before a jurisdiction challenge hardens into an appellate issue.
Case Summary
Fact Summary
The parties were married in Hidalgo County, lived in Texas for years, and their child was born in Texas in 2021. According to the record summarized by the court, the family lived in McAllen until late October 2022, then went to West Virginia to stay near Father’s family while attempting to address marital problems. The move was not shown to be a settled, permanent relocation into an independently established home; instead, the family stayed at Father’s parents’ residence.
Mother’s affidavit and the hearing evidence showed that after leaving Texas, the child spent time in West Virginia, Florida, and Brazil before returning to Texas in late June 2023. The chronology mattered. The child had lived in Texas from birth until October 31, 2022, then in West Virginia for about one month, Florida for about two months, Brazil for about four months, and again in West Virginia from May 3, 2023, until June 28, 2023, before returning to McAllen. Mother filed for divorce on June 27, 2023, and sought custody-related relief in Texas. Father later challenged subject-matter jurisdiction, arguing Texas was not the child’s home state because the child had not physically resided in Texas during the six months preceding suit and had developed stronger ties elsewhere, especially West Virginia.
The record also contained facts cutting the other way. Both parties alleged Texas domicile in their divorce pleadings. Mother emphasized that the parties married in Texas, had lived in Texas for years, the child was born here, Father’s work was based in Texas, and the family’s church and community were in Texas. A West Virginia court, in a later-filed proceeding, concluded that West Virginia did not have subject-matter jurisdiction and stated that Texas was the child’s home state.
Issues Decided
- Whether Texas had initial child-custody jurisdiction under Texas Family Code § 152.201(a)(1).
- Whether Texas qualified as the child’s “home state” within six months before commencement of the proceeding, even though the child had been physically present in multiple jurisdictions during that period.
- Whether the child’s stays outside Texas could be treated as temporary absences included in the home-state calculation under the UCCJEA.
- Whether Mother’s return to Texas with the child constituted “unjustifiable conduct” requiring the Texas court to decline jurisdiction under Family Code § 152.208(a).
- Whether the trial court otherwise committed reversible error in the decree, including issues relating to findings and sufficiency, though the headline point for practitioners is the jurisdiction ruling.
Rules Applied
The court worked from the UCCJEA framework codified in Chapter 152 of the Texas Family Code.
- Under Texas Family Code § 152.201(a)(1), a Texas court has jurisdiction to make an initial child-custody determination if Texas is the child’s home state on the date of commencement of the proceeding, or was the child’s home state within six months before commencement and the child is absent from Texas while a parent or person acting as a parent continues to live in Texas.
- “Home state” is defined in Texas Family Code § 152.102(7) as the state in which the child lived with a parent for at least six consecutive months immediately before commencement of the child-custody proceeding, including periods of temporary absence.
- Temporary absences do not interrupt the six-month home-state analysis.
- Subject-matter jurisdiction under the UCCJEA is reviewed de novo, although appellate courts defer to the trial court’s role as factfinder on disputed historical facts and credibility.
- Family Code § 152.208 addresses unjustifiable conduct and may require a court to decline jurisdiction in certain circumstances, but that inquiry does not displace otherwise valid home-state jurisdiction absent the statutory showing.
The opinion, as framed by the appellate court, reflects a practical reading of the UCCJEA: the analysis is not confined to a simplistic headcount of where the child slept in the immediate run-up to filing. The inquiry instead focuses on whether Texas remained the qualifying home state within the statutory lookback period and whether time away should be characterized as temporary absence rather than abandonment of the Texas home state.
Application
The court’s reasoning turned on the child’s substantial residence in Texas before the parties’ travel and interim stays elsewhere. The child was born in Texas and lived here for roughly the first fifteen months of her life. That fact provided the foundational six-consecutive-month Texas residence required by the home-state definition. The later travel pattern—West Virginia, Florida, Brazil, then West Virginia again—did not automatically create a new home state or eliminate Texas from the UCCJEA analysis.
The court viewed those out-of-state and international stays through the lens of temporary absence. The evidence showed the move to West Virginia was tied to a trial effort at reconciliation and proximity to Father’s family, not necessarily a settled relocation into a new permanent family base. Mother’s affidavit underscored that the parties had no fixed residence of their own there and that she traveled to Florida and Brazil with Father’s permission while the parties were still deciding where they would live. Those facts supported the characterization that the family’s departures from Texas were temporary interruptions, not the establishment of a new home state that displaced Texas.
That framing was enough to satisfy § 152.201(a)(1). Even if Texas was not the child’s home state on the exact filing date in the strict physical-presence sense Father advocated, the court concluded Texas had been the child’s home state within six months before commencement of the proceeding, and at least one parent continued to reside in Texas. The pleadings themselves helped Mother on that point because Father had alleged Texas domicile in his own counterpetition.
The court also rejected Father’s effort to elevate West Virginia into the jurisdictionally controlling forum. The later West Virginia proceeding did not undermine Texas jurisdiction; if anything, it reinforced it, because the West Virginia court found it lacked subject-matter jurisdiction. Nor did Father’s references to the child’s connections with Florida and Brazil defeat Texas jurisdiction. UCCJEA home-state analysis is hierarchical. When home-state jurisdiction exists under § 152.201(a)(1), arguments about “significant connections” elsewhere do not displace that basis.
As for unjustifiable conduct, Father argued Mother effectively abducted the child to Texas to secure a litigation advantage. But the appellate court did not treat the record as establishing a basis to require Texas to decline jurisdiction under § 152.208. The larger jurisdictional picture remained that Texas had the superior statutory claim as the recent home state.
Holding
The Thirteenth Court held that Texas properly exercised initial child-custody jurisdiction under Texas Family Code § 152.201(a)(1). Texas was the child’s home state within six months before commencement of the divorce and SAPCR proceeding, and a parent continued to reside in Texas. The child’s time outside Texas did not negate that conclusion because temporary absences are included in the home-state calculation.
The court also rejected Father’s challenge premised on West Virginia being the true home state. On this record, West Virginia did not supplant Texas as the jurisdiction authorized to make the initial custody determination, and the West Virginia court’s own order confirmed its lack of subject-matter jurisdiction.
The court further rejected the argument that Mother’s conduct required the Texas court to decline jurisdiction for unjustifiable conduct under Family Code § 152.208. The decree and associated conservatorship, possession, and support rulings were affirmed.
Practical Application
For Texas family-law litigators, De Oliveira is a record-building case. If your client files in Texas after a child has recently been moved among states or countries, the winning strategy is to prove continuity rather than mere presence. Establish where the child lived for the last settled six-month block, identify whether later travel was provisional or temporary, and tie the child back to Texas through residence history rather than only community contacts.
The case is also a reminder that pleadings matter. Father’s own allegations of Texas domicile weakened his jurisdictional challenge. In close UCCJEA cases, inconsistent pleading positions can become quasi-admissions that shape how the court sees residence, domicile, and intent. Litigators should align jurisdictional objections with all filed pleadings, affidavits, and temporary-orders testimony.
This opinion is especially relevant in at least four recurring scenarios:
- pre-divorce moves to a parent’s relatives in another state;
- international travel during marital breakdown;
- “trial relocations” that never become permanent;
- removal-to-Texas fact patterns where the responding party argues forum shopping or wrongful conduct.
For the party invoking Texas jurisdiction, the lesson is to document why the time outside Texas was temporary: no permanent lease, no settled employment change, no school enrollment, no durable relocation plan, and ongoing Texas ties. For the party contesting jurisdiction, the lesson is the opposite: develop evidence showing the move was intended to be permanent, that a new home base was established, and that the child’s life had actually shifted to the competing state before suit was filed.
Checklists
Build the UCCJEA Home-State Timeline
- Identify the exact commencement date of the Texas proceeding.
- Count backward six months from that filing date.
- Create a date-specific residence chart for the child covering birth to filing.
- Separate periods of actual residence from travel, visits, and temporary stays.
- Document where each parent resided during the same period.
- Confirm whether a parent continued to reside in Texas on the filing date.
Prove a “Temporary Absence” From Texas
- Gather evidence showing the out-of-state stay was provisional or exploratory.
- Show the family did not establish a fixed, independent residence in the other jurisdiction.
- Obtain testimony or documents reflecting uncertainty about where the family would ultimately live.
- Highlight return travel, short durations, and stays with relatives rather than permanent housing.
- Collect communications showing the absence was not intended as a final abandonment of Texas.
- Tie the child’s pre-absence life to Texas with objective facts, especially sustained prior residence.
Defend a Texas Filing Against a Jurisdiction Plea
- Plead § 152.201(a)(1) specifically, not generically.
- Present a clean chronology supported by affidavit and exhibits.
- Use the statutory phrase “home state within six months before commencement.”
- Emphasize that temporary absences are included in the six-month calculation.
- Identify the parent who continued to reside in Texas.
- Address competing-state filings early and obtain copies of any sister-state jurisdiction orders.
Attack a Claimed Texas Home State
- Test whether the alleged Texas period actually satisfies six consecutive months.
- Challenge the characterization of the out-of-state period as temporary.
- Develop evidence of permanent relocation intent, such as leases, employment, medical transfers, or enrollment records.
- Identify whether the child had already established a new home state before Texas suit was filed.
- Scrutinize the opposing party’s affidavits for conclusory labels like “temporary” unsupported by facts.
- Ensure your own pleadings do not undercut the jurisdiction challenge through Texas domicile allegations.
Avoid the Unjustifiable-Conduct Problem
- Advise clients not to self-help relocation decisions without immediate legal strategy.
- Preserve communications showing transparency, safety concerns, or temporary caretaking reasons for the move.
- Evaluate whether the facts support emergency jurisdiction versus home-state jurisdiction.
- Be prepared to explain why the relocation was not undertaken solely to manufacture Texas jurisdiction.
- If asserting unjustifiable conduct, connect the conduct directly to the statutory relief under § 152.208.
- Distinguish morally troubling conduct from conduct that actually defeats UCCJEA jurisdiction.
Coordinate Divorce and SAPCR Pleadings
- Confirm that domicile and residency allegations align with the UCCJEA position.
- Audit petitions, counterpetitions, and affidavits for inconsistent residence statements.
- Separate Texas divorce-residency requirements from UCCJEA child-custody jurisdiction, but make sure they do not contradict one another.
- Use temporary-orders testimony strategically, anticipating later appellate review.
- Request and preserve explicit rulings on jurisdictional objections.
- Build a record that can survive de novo review on the legal question and implied fact findings on historical facts.
Citation
In the Matter of the Marriage of Meilyn Rutz Danski De Oliveira and Edrey Clarence Oliveira and in the Interest of S.L.D.O., a Child, No. 13-24-00325-CV, 2024 WL ___ (Tex. App.—Corpus Christi–Edinburg 2024, no pet.) (mem. op.).
Full Opinion
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