Armstrong v. Armstrong
| Decision Date | 27 December 1974 |
| Docket Number | Nos. 74-1259 and 74-1282,s. 74-1259 and 74-1282 |
| Citation | 508 F.2d 348 |
| Parties | Leroy ARMSTRONG, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Virginia D. ARMSTRONG, Defendant-Appellant. Leroy ARMSTRONG, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Virginia D. ARMSTRONG, Defendant-Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit |
Milton Stanzler, Providence, R.I., with whom Abedon, Michaelson, Stanzler & Biener, Providence, R.I., was on brief, for Virginia D. Armstrong.
James P. Flynn, North Kingstown, R.I., for Leroy Armstrong.
Before ALDRICH, McENTEE and CAMPBELL, Circuit Judges.
On October 13, 1971, and May 9, 1972, the Rhode Island Family Court awarded to Virginia and Leroy Armstrong interlocutory and final divorce decrees. Both decrees awarded custody of their minor children to Virginia, and provided that Leroy had a duty to support Virginia and the minor children. No alimony was provided; rather the decrees recited that
'the aforesaid duty to support is governed by a Memorandum of Understanding between the parties, dated October 12, 1971, which is incorporated by reference, and made a part hereof, and therefore, there will be no express order.'
The Memorandum of Understanding revealed that Leroy had given Virginia a non-negotiable note for $288,000, payable in sixteen annual installments of $18,000, and secured by a mortgage on several nursing home properties formerly owned by the couple jointly and now owned by Leroy. Virginia and Leroy, as signers of the Memorandum, 'acknowledged and understood that in addition to the sum being part payment for (the two nursing home parcels) these payments are substantially for alimony and support of the minor children.'
The federal litigation from which this appeal is taken was an outgrowth of Leroy's failure to maintain payments under the note. Virginia initiated foreclosure proceedings, and Leroy responded by suit in the Rhode Island Superior Court for Washington County requesting an injunction against the proposed foreclosure sale and equitable cancellation or reformation of the Memorandum of Understanding, the mortgage and the note. As grounds for equitable relief, Leroy asserted that both parties had erroneously understood that the $18,000 annual payments would be reimbursed, at least partially, by certain state receipts relative to the nursing home formerly owned by the couple and now operated by Leroy. The alleged misunderstanding was said to be a 'mutual mistake.'
Virginia, a Florida resident, undertook to remove her former husband's equitable suit to the federal district court under 28 U.S.C. 1441(a). She also filed a counterclaim in that court for the full amount of the note. The district court, after first granting Leroy a temporary restraining order against foreclosure of the mortgage, said it would hear the case, but expressed concern as to whether it could be entertained in a federal court. After Leroy had rested, the court dismissed both the complaint and counterclaim 'for lack of jurisdiction,' asserting that a 'federal court . . . has no jurisdiction whatever to modify state court decrees in domestic relations matters.' Both parties appealed. Leroy takes the position that in dismissing the district court acted correctly, but he contends that the case should have been remanded to the Superior Court, or at least dismissed without prejudice.
It has often been said that federal courts are without jurisdiction to decide domestic relations case. Cf. C. Wright, Federal Courts 84 (2d ed. 1970); H. Hart & H. Wechsler, The Federal Courts and the Federal System 1189-92 (2d ed. 1973). The limitation goes back to a distum in Barber v. Barber, 62 U.S. (21 How.) 582, 584, 16 L.Ed. 226 (1859),
'We disclaim altogether any jurisdiction in the courts of the United States upon the subject of divorce, or for the allowance of alimony, either as an original proceeding in chancery or as an incident to divorce a vinculo, or to one from bed and board.'
Quite likely, as Judge Weinstein shows in Spindel v. Spindel, 283 F.Supp. 797, 800-801 (E.D.N.Y.1968), the Article III judicial power is broad enough to cover even such matrimonial matters if Congress were to provide, but the force of Barber was that divorce and alimony actions were not 'suits of a civil nature at common law or in equity' within Congress' original grant of diversity jurisdiction, Act of Sept. 24, 1789, 11, 1 Stat. 72, 78, Id. at 804. 1 The current wording of 28 U.S.C. 1332, 'civil actions,' is not deemed to have altered this rule, and we agree with Judge Friendly that 'it is beyond the realm of reasonable belief that, in these days of congested dockets, Congress would wish the federal courts to seek to regain territory, even if the cession of 1859 was unjustified.' Phillips, Nizer, Benjamin, Krim & Ballon v. Rosenstiel, 490 F.2d 509, 514 (2d Cir. 1973).
Lower federal courts have had difficulty determining when to decline cases which, though not strictly speaking actions for divorce or for alimony, are related to those...
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Sylvander v. New England Home for Little Wanderers
...cases such as this. First, there is a long history of state predominance and federal deferral in family law matters. Armstrong v. Armstrong, 508 F.2d 348 (1st Cir. 1974); Donnelly v. Donnelly, supra, 515 F.2d 129 (1st Cir.), Cert. denied, 423 U.S. 998, 96 S.Ct. 429, 46 L.Ed.2d 373 (1975); S......
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Fay v. South Colonie Cent. School Dist.
...relief that could be better handled by the state courts that have authority over matrimonial and family matters. Armstrong v. Armstrong, 508 F.2d 348, 350 (1st Cir.1974). To the extent that Fay would have copies of his children's school notices if his ex-wife would abide by their separation......
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Lehman v. Lycoming County Children's Services Agency
...to exercise diversity jurisdiction in domestic relations suits. Solomon v. Solomon, 516 F.2d 1018 (3d Cir. 1975). See Armstrong v. Armstrong, 508 F.2d 348 (1st Cir. 1974). This case, however, bears no similarity to Solomon which arose out of a contract claim for child support payments and w......
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Elias v. Elias
...still make abstention appropriate." Mojica v. Nogueras-Cartagena, 573 F. Supp. 2d 520, 523 (D. P.R. 2008) (citing Armstrong v. Armstrong, 508 F.2d 348 (1st Cir. 1974)); see Sutter v. Pitts, 639 F.2d 842, 843 (1st Cir. 1981) ("[A]lthough the exception has been narrowly confined, we and other......