Nevada family-law case summaries

This case involves a custody dispute between two parents, Jennifer Crosier and Garrett Crosier, who married in Utah and had three children. After separating in 2017, Jennifer moved to Nevada with the children and Garrett moved to Colorado. Although they divorced in Utah in 2019, the parties agree that no Utah court ever issued a final custody decree. In April 2022, Jennifer filed a complaint in Nevada asking for sole legal and sole physical custody of all three children. In her complaint, Jennifer raised concerns about Garrett's alleged domestic violence, stating that he had a prior child abuse/neglect conviction from Utah and that the children were afraid of him. The two older children were interviewed by the Family Mediation Center (FMC) and described instances of alleged physical abuse by Garrett - one child said he slapped her and caused her to hit her head, and that he kicked the other child with a steel-toed boot; the other child said he picked her up and pulled her by her hair. Both older children said they preferred to stay with Jennifer in Nevada. At a single-day hearing in May 2023, both parents represented themselves without lawyers. The judge told the parties he would "take control of the questioning" to avoid wasting time, and the court itself questioned the parties and witnesses. The court admitted the FMC child interview report into evidence, but it never asked any questions about the abuse allegations in that report or the domestic violence claims from Jennifer's complaint. When Jennifer tried to raise the abuse issue in her closing argument, the court did not allow her to continue, stating she had offered "zero evidence" that Garrett abused the children. At the end of the hearing, the judge said he had to consider "certain factors in evaluating what is in a child's best interest," but he addressed only two of the twelve factors that Nevada law requires. The court decided the parents would share joint legal custody, that Jennifer would have primary physical custody of the two older children, and that Garrett would have primary physical custody of the youngest child in Colorado. The written custody decree that followed did not mention any of the twelve best interest factors and contained no factual findings about the children's best interest. A later post-decree order also failed to address those factors. The Court of Appeals reversed. It explained that when deciding custody, a court's only consideration is the best interest of the child, and the court must consider all twelve factors listed in the statute and put its findings in a written order that ties those findings to the custody decision. Because the decree here contained no such findings, the court found this was an abuse of discretion and reversible error. The court also held that the trial court should have addressed the domestic violence allegations - the FMC report containing those allegations was in evidence, yet the court never determined whether domestic violence occurred. Finally, the court held the trial judge should have analyzed whether moving the youngest child to Colorado was in that child's best interest, using a five-factor test from prior Nevada case law. The case was sent back for a new evidentiary hearing.

This case concerns which state's courts have the authority to decide who should be appointed guardian of a young child, Y.U.G. The child was born in Las Vegas in June 2022 to Daron G. and Sway Dumes. When the child was about ten months old, the parents concluded they could not care for him because they did not have stable housing, so they entrusted him to his paternal aunt, Ladesha G., who lives in Compton, California. In April 2023, Ladesha took the child to live with her in California, while the parents stayed in Las Vegas. About three months later, in July 2023, Ladesha brought the child back to Las Vegas to obtain his birth certificate and social security card. While there, she filed a petition asking a Nevada court to appoint her as the child's guardian, and the parents consented. After filing, she returned to California with the child. At an October hearing, the district court raised a concern: because the child had been living in California after the petition was filed, the judge questioned whether a Nevada court had the power (called subject matter jurisdiction) to hear the case. The court then issued a written decision denying the petition, concluding it lacked jurisdiction because "California is the home state." The Court of Appeals disagreed and reversed. It explained that Nevada law lets a Nevada court hear a child custody or guardianship matter if Nevada was the child's "home state" within six months before the case was filed, so long as the child is now outside Nevada but a parent still lives in Nevada. Here, the child had lived in Nevada from birth in June 2022 until moving to California in April 2023 — more than ten months — so Nevada was his home state. The guardianship petition was filed in July 2023, only about three months after the child moved, which is within the six-month window. And even though the child was in California when the petition was filed, both parents still lived in Las Vegas. Because all of those conditions were met, the court held that the Nevada district court did have jurisdiction and should not have denied the petition for lack of it. Because that conclusion resolved the appeal, the Court of Appeals sent the case back to the district court to proceed, and did not address the other issues Y.U.G. raised.