T.W. v. Morgan County Department of Human Resources

── T.W. v. Morgan County Department of Human Resources ── Case No.: CL-2025-0674 Court: Court of Civil Appeals of Alabama Date: March 20, 2026 Author: Bowden Category: General Rel: March 20, 2026 Notice: This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the advance sheets of Southern Reporter. Readers are requested to notify the Reporter of Decisions, Alabama Appellate Courts, 300 Dexter Avenue, Montgomery, Alabama 36104-3741 ((334) 229-0650), of any typographical or other errors, in order that corrections may be made before the opinion is published in Southern Reporter. ALABAMA COURT OF CIVIL APPEALS OCTOBER TERM, 2025-2026 _________________________ CL-2025-0674 and CL-2025-0675 _________________________ T.W. v. Morgan County Department of Human Resources Appeals from Morgan Juvenile Court (JU-22-1032.02 and JU-22-1034.02) BOWDEN, Judge. T.W. ("the mother") appeals from judgments of the Morgan Juvenile Court ("the juvenile court") terminating her parental rights to R.L.W. and L.N.W. ("the children"). The judgments also terminated the parental rights of R.W. ("the father"). The father has not appealed. CL-2025-0674, CL-2025-0675 The mother argues on appeal that the juvenile court exceeded its discretion by denying her motion to continue the June 25, 2025, termination-of-parental-rights trial and that there was insufficient evidence to support the juvenile court's finding that there are no viable alternatives to the termination of her parental rights. However, we need not reach the merits of the mother's arguments; the record does not contain sufficient evidence from which this court can determine whether the juvenile court acquired subject-matter jurisdiction over the underlying actions under Alabama's version of the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act ("the UCCJEA"), codified at Ala. Code 1975, § 30-3B-101 et seq. Therefore, we reverse the judgments of the juvenile court and remand the causes for the juvenile court to determine whether it has subject-matter jurisdiction under Alabama's version of the UCCJEA. Background The children were born in Indiana.1 The children lived there with the mother until an Indiana court awarded custody of the children to the father on January 28, 2021. A copy of that judgment is not included in 1R.L.W. was born on September 1, 2015. L.N.W. was born on August 12, 2016. 2 CL-2025-0674, CL-2025-0675 the record. The children thereafter moved to Alabama with the father, but the mother continued to live in Indiana. Testimony indicated that an Indiana court had ordered phone visitation between the mother and the children in March 2021. A copy of that judgment is not included in the record. The father testified that the mother had not physically been in the children's presence since the Indiana court entered the January 28, 2021, judgment awarding him custody of the children. The father also testified that the mother had not spoken to the children since February 2022. The father testified that he had been unable to facilitate the mother's phone visitation with the children because of his work schedule. The father also testified that the mother did not call him and did not answer when he tried calling her. In August 2022, the Morgan County Department of Human Resources ("DHR") received a report that the children were living in deplorable conditions. At that time, the father and the children were living in Decatur with K.C. (the father's then-paramour), three other children, K.C.'s stepmother, K.C.'s stepmother's boyfriend, and K.C.'s grandmother. The children remained in the home while DHR provided 3 CL-2025-0674, CL-2025-0675 in-home services to the father and K.