Beneventi v. Beneventi, 54236

• Decision Date: 11 March 1971
• Docket Number: No. 54236,54236
• Parties: Gloria R. BENEVENTI, Appellant, v. Robert L. BENEVENTI, Appellee.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

Page 219

185 N.W.2d 219

Gloria R. BENEVENTI, Appellant, v. Robert L. BENEVENTI, Appellee.

No. 54236.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

March 11, 1971.

H. M. Coggeshall, Des Moines, for appellant.

Swift, Brown, Rogers, Winick & Randall, Des Moines, for appellee.

LARSON, Justice.

Pursuant to an action for child support brought under the Iowa Uniform Support of Dependents Law, Chapter 252A of the 1966 Code, the District Court of Polk County, Iowa, inter alia, ordered the respondent father to pay through the clerk of court as child support for each of three minor children the sum of $100 per month commencing on the 1st day of June 1969 and continuing thereafter until each child is 18 years of age, marries, or becomes self-supporting, whichever event shall first occur. Respondent expressed no dissatisfaction with that provision.

However, the district court also ordered that the respondent have the right to have the children visit him outside the State of Georgia from June 15 to August 15 of each year commencing in 1969 and at other specified times. It further ordered that petitioner cooperate with respondent in arranging transportation of the children from Georgia, the state of petitioner's residence, to a place designated by respondent, and share in the transportation costs.

The court further entered judgment against petitioner and in favor of respondent for $200 for failure to answer certain interrogatories, taxed the costs against petitioner, and granted respondent's attorney fees in the sum of $300.

Petitioner appeals contending that, with the exception of the order establishing the amount of support to be furnished petitioner for the children, the Iowa district court did not have jurisdiction to impose these conditions or render these judgments against petitioner and that its orders to that extent are void. We must agree.

From the record we learn that the appellee, Robert L. Beneventi, and the appellant, Gloria R. Beneventi, were married in the State of Georgia on January 31, 1956. Three children were born of this marriage, Bradley Thomas on July 30, 1957, John Joseph on April 27, 1961, and Leigh Lrene on March 13, 1963.

Prior to March 13, 1968, the appellee, the appellant, and their three children resided in Des Moines, Iowa. The appellee was an attorney employed by the Dial Finance Company.

Robert testified their marriage had not been a happy one and that he and Gloria had discussed separation or divorce. When he returned from work on March 13, 1968, he discovered that she and the three children had departed from their home in Des Moines. He learned later that they had taken up residence in Muscogee County, Georgia, that she had filed a civil action in that county and state on March 15, 1968, which resulted in a default decree on June 20, 1968, awarding her the permanent custody of the minor children without visitation rights in him and awarding to her the sole ownership of all their property located in Georgia. Notice to Robert of the Georgia court action was served by publication and by personal service on him in the State of Iowa.

It also appears on March 19, 1968, Robert filed a petition for separate maintenance in Polk County District Court wherein he prayed for custody of the children and the use of the home in Des Moines, Iowa. Gloria was served notice by publication. Pursuant to Robert's amendment to his petition praying for a divorce, a default decree was entered September 16, 1968, granting him a divorce, the homestead, and all furnishings therein, and providing that he was under no obligation to pay child support.

On September 5, 1968, petitioner commenced the action for support now before us. She filed a verified petition in the Muscogee County court with an attached pauper's affidavit, and the Georgia court certified the application to the Polk County District Court. An order was then entered by the Iowa court setting the matter for hearing October 25 and providing for the subpoena of defendant Robert. On October 17 defendant filed a verified answer and a counterclaim. He also filed 21 interrogatories to be propounded to Gloria. She declined to answer all but four on the basis of irrelevancy. The court thereafter ordered her to answer them under penalty provided by the Rules of Civil Procedure in Iowa and set the case for trial on its merits on March 28, 1969. On May 12, 1969, the district court made certain findings as to parental duty to support, custody, and rights of visitation, and ability to contribute, and ordered appellee to pay into court the amount heretofore set out. The order also provided visitation privileges for appellee and certain custodial rights as a condition of the award. Gloria appealed to this court on June 9, 1969, and thereafter by ex parte order the district court found that she had failed to permit Robert to have custody of the children pursuant to its order and terminated Robert's obligation to pay child support as of June 15, 1969.

As her first proposition relied upon for reversal of the conditional provisions of the order for support under the Uniform Support of Dependents Law, appellant maintains the court lacked jurisdiction to consider or decide rights of custody and visitation, possession of property, attorney fees, and income tax deductions, and contends the appellant mother should have been granted an unconditional order for support of the children without any purported judgment in personam against her.

In her second proposition she contends the district court's order of June 26, 1969, following her appeal to the Supreme Court on June 9, 1969, is void for a lack of jurisdiction in the district court.

The primary if not the sole question presented by this appeal is the extent of the district court's jurisdiction in actions brought for child support under the Uniform Support of Dependents Law, being chapter 252A of the Code of Iowa 1966.

I. Chapter 252A is unquestionably a special procedure statute. It was enacted in substantially the same form in practically every state and territory of the United States. State ex rel. Schwartz v. Buder, 315 S.W.2d 867 (Mo.App.1958); Thompson v. Thompson, 93 So.2d 90 (Fla.1957). Also see Brockelbank's treatise, Interstate Enforcement of Family Support. Its chief purpose was to supplant inadequate laws for the enforcement of support by providing 'a simplified two-state procedure by which the obligor's duty to support an obligee residing in another state may be enforced expeditiously and with a minimum of expense to the obligee (or to the State, if the obligee is indigent). It contemplates that the court of the initiating state will refer the petition to the court of the responding state having jurisdiction of the obligor or his property. * * *. It takes cognizance of the fact that the duty of support may arise out of a divorce or separate maintenance decree entered by another court * * *.' Thompson v. Thompson, supra, 93 So.2d 90, 93.

II. Section 252A.9 provides: 'This chapter shall be so interpreted and construed as to effectuate its general purpose to make uniform the law of the states which enact it.'

Section 252A.7 provides: 'It shall be the duty of all petitioner's representatives of this state to appear in this state on behalf of and represent the petitioner in every proceeding pursuant to this chapter, at the time the petition is filed and at all stages of the proceeding thereafter, and to obtain and present such evidence or proof as may be required by the court in the initiating state or the responding state.'

Section 252A.6(5) provides: 'It shall not be necessary for the petitioner or the petitioner's witnesses to appear personally at such hearing, but it shall be the duty of the petitioner's representative of the responding state to appear on behalf of and represent the petitioner at all stages of the proceeding.'

Section 252A.3(7) provides: 'Notwithstanding the fact that the respondent has obtained in any state or country a final decree of divorce or separation from his wife or a decree dissolving his marriage, the respondent shall be deemed legally liable for the support of any dependent child of such marriage.'

Section 252A.4(2) provides: 'The court of the responding state shall have the power to order the respondent to pay sums sufficient to provide necessary food, shelter, clothing, care, medical or hospital expenses, * * *.'

III. The Iowa provisions being almost identical to those enacted in other states, we may look to pronouncements by the courts in those states for a general interpretation of this special procedure. We find they have generally restricted the jurisdiction of the hearing to a granting or denying of support and do not endeavor to exercise personal jurisdiction of the parent seeking relief nor recognize and grant counterclaims against that parent. Blois v. Blois, 138 So.2d 373 (Fla.App.1962); Thompson v. Thompson, supra, 93 So.2d 90 (Fla.1957); State ex rel. Schwartz v. Buder, supra, 315 S.W.2d 867 (Mo.App.1958); Davidson v. Davidson, 66 Wash.2d 780, 405 P.2d 261 (1965); Clarke v. Blackburn, 151 So.2d 325 (Fla.App.1963); Prager v. Smith, 195 A.2d 257 (D.C.App.1963); Wilson v. Wilson, 66 Nev. 405, 212 P.2d 1066 (1949); State of Illinois ex rel. Shannon v. Sterling, 248 Minn. 266, 80 N.W.2d 13 (1956).

In Thompson v. Thompson, supra, a husband and wife were divorced in Florida and the wife later filed in Connecticut under the Uniform Act. That court referred its order for enforcement to Florida where the husband lived. Support was awarded by the Florida court, which stated at page 93 of 93 So.2d: 'It (this law) is intended to provide remedies to the obligee 'in addition to and not in substitution for any other remedies' * * *.'

In Moore v. Moore, 252 Iowa 404, 107 N.W.2d 97, we ourselves considered the extent of the jurisdiction conferred upon the respondent state. There a wife in Alabama brought a support action against her husband in Iowa and was awarded $65 per month. Respond...