Bigham v. Dempster

joined by Chief Justice PHILLIPS, Justice HIGHTOWER, Justice HECHT, Justice CORNYN, and Justice ENOCH.

These child custody proceedings present a dominant jurisdiction problem. The procedural facts are complicated, but the legal problem is simple. The legal issue is when a transfer order becomes “docketed” in the transferee court to deprive the transferring court of jurisdiction over the children. We hold that when a certified copy of the transfer order has been presented to the judge of the transferee court, who proceeds as though the case were docketed by having the clerk assign a number and…