## Facts

- Leona Anderson May and Owen Anderson were married, domiciled in Wisconsin, and had three minor children.
- In 1946, the mother took the children to Ohio without the father’s knowledge and remained there.
- The father filed for divorce and custody in Wisconsin; the mother was served in Ohio by publication and mail, did not appear, and Wisconsin lacked personal jurisdiction over her.
- In 1947, the Wisconsin court granted the father a divorce and awarded him custody.
- The father later took the children to Wisconsin pursuant to the decree; after a subsequent visit to Ohio, the mother refused to return them.
- In 1951, the father sought an Ohio writ of habeas corpus to obtain immediate possession of the children based on the Wisconsin custody decree.

## Issues

1. Whether the Full Faith and Credit Clause required Ohio courts to treat as binding a Wisconsin custody decree entered in an ex parte divorce proceeding where Wisconsin lacked personal jurisdiction over the mother.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court reversed and remanded.
- Full Faith and Credit did not require Ohio to enforce the Wisconsin custody award against the mother because the rendering court lacked personal jurisdiction over her.
- Ohio erred by treating the Wisconsin custody determination as conclusively binding in the habeas corpus proceeding between the parents over immediate possession.

## Legal Principles

- Full Faith and Credit does not compel enforcement of a judgment that purports to determine a person’s personal rights when the rendering court lacked personal jurisdiction over that person.
- A custody award affecting the parent-child relationship cannot conclusively bind a nonappearing parent whose parental rights were adjudicated without personal jurisdiction.
- Recognition of a divorce as a change in marital status does not automatically entail binding effect for a related custody adjudication against an absent parent.
- In an interstate habeas corpus dispute over immediate possession of children, the forum state may determine custody under its own law unless constitutionally required to give the prior decree binding effect.

## Conclusion

The Court held that Ohio was not constitutionally required to enforce a Wisconsin custody decree entered without personal jurisdiction over the mother, and it returned the case for further proceedings in Ohio consistent with that limitation on Full Faith and Credit.


May v. Anderson, 345 U.S. 528 (1953)