James Ferguson vs. Debbie Warren

This case involves child visitation with a prison inmate. The child's father has been incarcerated since 1994 at the Northwest Correctional Facility in Lake County, Tennessee. The child resides with his mother in Weakley County, Tennessee. In 1997, the father filed a petition in the Lake County Chancery Court seeking an order requiring the child's mother to allow the father to communicate with his child. The mother failed to respond to the petition. In April 1999, the Lake County Chancery Court sua sponte dismissed the petition, finding that it should have been filed in Weakley County. This Court reversed, holding that lack of venue was a defensewhich was waived when the mother failed to respond. After the case was remanded, the mother sent a letter to the Lake County Chancery Court, advising that a paternity petition had been filed in the Weakley County Juvenile Court. Thereafter, the Lake County Chancery Court transferred the father's petition to the Weakley County Juvenile Court to be determined in conjunction with the paternity petition. The father now appeals the transfer of his petition. We affirm, finding that the trial court acted within its authority in transferring the case to a court with concurrent jurisdiction.