Child Custody • Venue • Sufficiency of Evidence • Effect of Recusal Request

B.A.B. v. J.J.B., PICS Case No. 17-1106 (Pa. Super. June 26, 2017) Ott, J. (25 pages).

Trial court that issued initial custody determination retained exclusive, continuing jurisdiction over custody, and further had jurisdiction to determine whether another jurisdiction would be a more convenient forum warranting transfer of jurisdiction and venue. Order of the trial court affirmed.

Mother B.A.B. appealed trial courts denial of her petition to transfer jurisdiction and venue of child custody proceeding with father J.J.B. Following the parties' separation in May 2006, mother moved to York County, while father remained in Lebanon County. Father sued for custody of the parties' three children in Lebanon County. The trial court initially granted mother primary physical custody, father partial custody, and the parties shared legal custody. Thereafter, a series of incidents prompted mother to seek a PFA order against father, the most serious of which occurred during a custody exchange when father used physical force to compel the parties' oldest son to enter father's car. Father was charged with simple assault. Father agreed to have no contact with the children for six months.