High Court schedules civil union custody case
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By Alan J. Keays Rutland Herald - Published: August 11, 2005
The Vermont Supreme Court has set a date for hearing arguments in a national headline-making custody dispute stemming from a civil union split.
The case resulted in rulings from Vermont and Virginia that have been at odds with each other. Janet Miller-Jenkins lives in Fair Haven, while her former partner Lisa Miller-Jenkins lives in Virginia.
Vermont highest court has set a hearing in the matter for Sept. 7. The court has set aside 30 minutes for the arguments.
Judge William Cohen, presiding over the case in Rutland Family Court, rejected Lisa Miller-Jenkins bid to grant "full faith and credit" to the judgments reached in the case in Virginia, which found she is the sole parent to 3-year-old Isabella, a child born by artificial insemination to Lisa Miller-Jenkins.
At the time, the two women were joined in a civil union formed in Vermont.
Cohen ruled in December that Virginia "improperly exercised jurisdiction" in the case because the matter was already pending in Vermont before a filing was made in that state.
Lisa Miller-Jenkins had to seek permission from Cohen before she could appeal his Rutland Family Court ruling to the Vermont Supreme Court, because no final custody order has yet been issued in the case.
Cohen granted that permission.
The case has attracted media attention around the nation, highlighting the fate of children in relationships sanctioned in one state, but not in others.
The women were living in Virginia when they agreed more than four years ago to enter into a civil union in Vermont. The pair then returned to Virginia and decided Lisa Miller-Jenkins would conceive a child through artificial insemination.
Isabella was born in Virginia in April 2002 and the two women returned to Vermont. The women later broke up, filing to dissolving their civil union in Rutland Family Court.Lisa Miller-Jenkins, 35, moved with the child back to Virginia, a state where civil unions are not recognized.
She sued in Virginia for full custody and a judge granted her request.
Janet Miller-Jenkins, 39, of Fair Haven had opposed the Virginia action, arguing that a judge in Vermont already had given her temporary visitation rights. That decision has since been appealed to the Virginia Court of Appeals.
Contact Alan J. Keays at alan.keays@rutlandherald.com.
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