Szmyd v. Szmyd

OPINION

CONNOR, Justice.

This petition raises the question of whether an Alaska superior court, which renders the original marriage dissolution decree, retains jurisdiction to modify custody when the non-custodial parent continues to reside in the state, but the custodial parent and the sole child have lived outside the state for the past two and one-half years. If there is jurisdiction, a corollary issue is whether the superior court erred in ruling that jurisdiction should not be declined on inconvenient forum grounds.

In our view, the court had jurisdiction but initially abused its discretion…