Boyles v. Boyles

• Decision Date: 31 May 1983
• Docket Number: No. 671A82,671A82
• Citation: 308 N.C. 488,302 S.E.2d 790
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court
• Parties: Alma Christine BOYLES v. Paul W. BOYLES.

Page 790

302 S.E.2d 790

308 N.C. 488

Alma Christine BOYLES v. Paul W. BOYLES.

No. 671A82.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

May 31, 1983.

Douglas F. DeBank, Raleigh, for plaintiff-appellant.

Sanford, Adams, McCullough & Beard by Charles H. Montgomery and Cynthia Wittmer West, Cary, for defendant-appellee.

FRYE, Justice.

The question with which we are presented is whether a North Carolina court is bound to accord full faith and credit to a default judgment for alimony arrearages rendered by a Florida court when the defendant in the action did not receive actual notice of the Florida court proceeding and the plaintiff's certified letter to the defendant notifying him of the action was returned to her marked "unclaimed". We hold that the Florida judgment cannot be accorded full faith and credit because it was not a valid judgment under Florida law: the notice given in the case was inadequate under Florida law. The factual circumstances and legal reasoning underlying this determination will be discussed below.

I.

Paul W. Boyles and Alma Christine Boyles were divorced on 19 October 1962 by the Circuit Court of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit, Dade County, Florida. The final decree of divorce required, among other things, that Paul Boyles pay Alma Boyles $200 a month in alimony so long as Alma Boyles remained unmarried.

About nine years later, in an action growing out of the divorce decree, Alma Boyles filed a motion in the Florida circuit court asking for a judgment against Paul Boyles for alimony arrearages. On 21 April 1971, the Florida circuit court awarded judgment to Alma Boyles for alimony arrearages of $10,800 after stating it had been "advised that notice was sent to the plaintiff, Paul W. Boyles, advising him of the Motion for Money Judgment and the date of said hearing, said notice being provided timely and in accordance with the laws of the State of Florida, and the plaintiff, Paul W. Boyles, failing to appear at said hearing ..." The only evidence in the record which relates to the Florida court's finding that notice of the alimony proceeding was in accordance with Florida law is: 1) a copy of a certified letter addressed to Paul Boyles at his Pennsylvania residence which bears a postal stamp indicating that the letter was returned to the writer, Alma Boyles' attorney, because the letter was "unclaimed", 2) notations on the certified letter indicating that two notices were left at Paul Boyles' address informing him that the post office had the letter, and 3) a copy of the unsigned receipt for the certified letter.

Over ten years after this Florida judgment for alimony arrearages had been entered, Alma Boyles filed a complaint in this State in Superior Court, Wake County, asking that full faith and credit be accorded the Florida default judgment. In an affidavit filed 16 September 1981, Paul Boyles, now a North Carolina resident, specifically denied he was ever "aware of any such action which allegedly resulted in a Florida judgment for $10,800.00 in April, 1971." He also specifically denied he had ever been served with a complaint for these alimony arrearages while living in Pennsylvania. Nevertheless, on 24 September 1981 the trial court entered an order according full faith and credit to the Florida default judgment. In so doing, it was ordered that defendant pay $10,800 in alimony arrearages together with interest thereon at the rate of eight percent from 21 April 1971. The Court of Appeals reversed this Superior Court judgment and held that full faith and credit should not be accorded the Florida default judgment because the notice of the proceeding was not sufficient under Florida law. Boyles v. Boyles, 59 N.C.App. 389, 395, 297 S.E.2d 405, 409 (1982). We agree.

II.

The Constitution of the United States provides: "Full faith and credit shall be given in each state to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other state." U.S. Const. art. IV, § 1. In carrying out this constitutional mandate, the United States Supreme Court has consistently held that "the judgment of a state court should have the same credit, validity and effect, in every other court of the United States, which it had in the state where it was pronounced." E.g., Underwriters Nat'l Assur. Co. v. North Carolina Life and Accident and Health Ins. Guar. Ass'n [hereinafter cited as Underwriters ], 455 U.S. 691, 704, 102 S.Ct. 1357, 1365, 71 L.Ed.2d 558, 570 (1982), quoting Hampton v. M'Connel, 3 (Wheat.) 234, 235, 4 L.Ed. 378, 379 (1818). See also 28 U.S.C. § 1738 (1976) (acts, records and judicial proceedings of every other state "shall have the same full faith and credit in every court within the United States and its Territories and Possessions as they have by law or usage in the Court of such State, Territory or Possession from which they are taken").

Because a judgment from a rendering court is only entitled to the "same credit, validity and effect" in a sister state as it had in the state where it was pronounced, the judgment from the rendering court must be deemed to have satisfied certain requisites of a valid judgment before full faith and credit will be granted to it. Restatement (Second) of Conflict of Laws § 92 and § 92 Comment c (1971). For example, the rendering court must have had subject matter jurisdiction--the power to pass on the merits of the case--before full faith and credit will be granted. E.g., Underwriters, 455 U.S. at 704, 102 S.Ct. at 1365, 71 L.Ed.2d at 570; Durfee v. Duke, 375 U.S. 106, 110, 84 S.Ct. 242, 244, 11 L.Ed.2d 186, 190 (1963); Frances Hosiery Mills, Inc. v. Burlington Industries, Inc., 285 N.C. 344, 352, 204 S.E.2d 834, 839 (1974). The rendering court must also have respected the demands of due process. That is, the rendering court must have had personal jurisdiction--otherwise known as "minimum contacts"--over the affected parties, International Shoe Co. v. State of Washington, 326 U.S. 310, 66 S.Ct. 154, 90 L.Ed. 95 (1945), and have afforded the parties adequate notice and an opportunity to be heard, Mullane v. Central Hanover Bank & Trust Co., 339 U.S. 306, 70 S.Ct. 652, 94 L.Ed. 865 (1950), before full faith and credit will be accorded the judgment. See Griffin v. Griffin, 327 U.S. 220, 228-29, 66 S.Ct. 556, 560, 90 L.Ed. 635, 640 (1946) (judgment obtained in violation of procedural due process is not entitled to full faith and credit). "A judgment rendered without judicial jurisdiction ['minimum contacts'] or without adequate notice or adequate opportunity to be heard will not be recognized or enforced in the other states." Restatement (Second) of Conflict of Laws § 104.

We note that the second court's scope of review concerning the rendering court's jurisdiction is very limited. In Underwriters, 455 U.S. 691, 102 S.Ct. 1357, 71 L.Ed.2d 558 (1982), rev'g 48 N.C.App. 508, 269 S.E.2d 688, disc. rev. denied, 301 N.C. 527, 273 S.E.2d 453 (1980), the United States Supreme Court reiterated the rule that "a judgment is entitled to full faith and credit--even as to questions of jurisdiction--when the second court's inquiry discloses that those questions have been fully and fairly litigated and finally decided in the court which rendered the judgment." Id., quoting Durfee v. Duke, 375 U.S. at 111, 84 S.Ct. at 245, 11 L.Ed.2d at 191. It follows that the second court's limited inquiry into the rendering court's jurisdiction--simply whether the jurisdictional issue was "fully and fairly litigated"--rests on the presupposition that the requirement of adequate notice had been met in the original proceeding. Indeed, if a litigant has no notice of a court proceeding, a fortiori, the litigant could not "fully and fairly litigate" any issue in the case. In recognizing this distinction between notice and jurisdiction, it follows that when a party against whom a default judgment was entered subsequently challenges the validity of the original proceeding on the grounds that he did not receive adequate notice, the reviewing court ordinarily must examine the underlying facts in the record to determine if they support the conclusion that the notice given of the original proceeding was adequate. See Mullane v. Central Hanover Bank & Trust Co., 339 U.S. 306, 70 S.Ct. 652, 94 L.Ed. 865 (1950).

In addition, full faith and credit requires that the rendering court must also have been competent. Restatement (Second) of Conflict of Laws § 105. See also R. Weintraub, Commentary on the Conflict of Laws § 4.3, at 96-97 (2d ed. 1980). That is, the rendering court must have been given the power by its state to entertain the particular action and there must have been compliance with the requirements the rendering state deems necessary for the exercise of judicial power. Restatement (Second) of Conflict of Laws § 105 Comment a. "A judgment rendered by a court lacking competence to render it and for that reason subject to collateral attack in the state of rendition will not be recognized or enforced in other states." Id. § 105. See also R. Weintraub, Commentary on the Conflict of Laws § 4.3, at 96-97. The reason for the rule is this: If a court lacks competence to render a particular judgment, the judgment is void in the state of rendition itself. Thus, the judgment will not be recognized or enforced by a sister state because under the Full Faith and Credit Clause a judgment can only be given the "same" effect, not a greater effect, in other states. Restatement (Second) of Conflict of Laws § 105 Comment a.

In the case at bar, defendant contends that the Florida default judgment is void and thus not entitled to full faith and credit because one of the requisites of a valid judgment--adequate notice--was not met before the Florida court entered judgment against him. Specifically, defendant contends that the Florida judgment is void for two reasons: 1) the Florida judgment was rendered in violation of defendant's fourteenth amendment right to due process under the United States Constitution which...