Bruce v. Miller
| Decision Date | 27 December 1960 |
| Docket Number | No. 39164,39164 |
| Citation | 360 P.2d 508,1960 OK 266 |
| Parties | Dewey BRUCE and Dessie Bruce, Applicants, v. Bruno MILLER, Judge of the County Court of Oklahoma County, Respondent. |
| Court | Oklahoma Supreme Court |
Syllabus by the Court
1. Judgment of district court adjudicating validity of adoption decree of county court, unappealed from, is res judicata in subsequent action in county court to vacate said adoption decree, as between the same parties.
2. Writ of prohibition will issue to prevent a court from trying a case of which it lacks jurisdiction.
Original action by Dewey Bruce and Dessie Bruce for writ of prohibition against the County Court of Oklahoma County; Bruno Miller, Judge. Writ granted.
Stagner, Alpern, Powers & Tapp, Oklahoma City, for applicants.
Suits & Weiss, Oklahoma City, for respondent.
This is an application by Dewey Bruce and Dessie Bruce, adoptive parents of Larry Gene Shaw, for a writ prohibiting the Honorable Bruno Miller, Judge of the County Court of Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, from hearing or considering a motion to vacate an adoption decree entered in said court and from all other proceedings in said cause, being No. 24530. The motion to vacate the adoption decree was filed by Harlan G. Shaw, natural father of said child, upon grounds which allegedly render said decree absolutely void.
In support of the application, applicants contend that the said adoption decree has heretofore been adjudicated as valid by the District Court of Oklahoma County, in an action between the same parties, which judgment was unappealed from and is final and binding upon the parties and is res judicata, and that a County Court, after entering an adoption decree, has no further jurisdiction in the cause.
The principal contentions of respondent, in opposition to the issuance of a writ, are that the adoption decree is absolutely void, therefore the District Court of Oklahoma County had no power to adjudge it valid, and that the doctrine of res judicata is not applicable to a void, as distinguished from a merely voidable, or erroneous judgment.
We consider the decisive question to be, assuming but not deciding that the adoption decree is absolutely void, whether the judgment of the District Court of Oklahoma County holding said decree valid, which judgment was unappealed from, is final and binding upon Harlan G. Shaw on said issue.
The facts essential to a determination of this question are summarized, as follows:
On December 8, 1945, Vera Shaw was granted a divorce from Harlan G. Shaw in the District Court of Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, upon grounds of extreme cruelty and infidelity. Vera Shaw was granted the exclusive care, custody and control of the minor child of the parties, Larry Gene Shaw, subject to reasonable visitation rights of Harlan G. Shaw. Harlan G. Shaw was ordered to pay $25 a month as and for child support.
On June 23, 1947, the County Court of Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, entered its adoption decree, by which Larry Gene Shaw was adopted by Dewey Bruce and Dessie Bruce, husband and wife, applicants herein. In said proceedings, Vera Shaw appeared and signed the petition and her consent to the adoption in the presence of the court. Harlan G. Shaw did not appear and service was obtained, or sought to be obtained, upon him by publication, which service the court approved and adjudged sufficient to confer jurisdiction to enter the adoption decree. The court further found that Harlan G. Shaw had not communicated with or furnished financial assistance to his former wife for the care and support of said child for more than eighteen months; that he had remarried and was a non-resident of the State of Oklahoma.
On September 5, 1953, Harlan G. Shaw filed a habeas corpus proceeding in the District Court of Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, in Cause No. 131,522 against Dewey Bruce and Dessie Bruce, applicants herein, seeking to obtain the custody of Larry Gene Shaw. The validity of the adoption decree was attacked in said petition and defended in the response thereto and was one of the principal issues in the cause. On December 1, 1953, the District Court entered judgment in said cause, decreeing and adjudging that said adoption decree was valid and denying the writ of habeas corpus. On December 3, 1953, Harlan G. Shaw filed a motion for new trial in said cause.
Thereafter, on August 25, 1955, and without any action being taken on the motion for new trial, the said Harlan G. Shaw filed another habeas corpus proceeding in the District Court of Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, in Cause No. 136,762, and again attacked the validity of the adoption decree. A plea of res judicata was interposed by Dewey Bruce and Dessie Bruce, applicants herein, and on September 2, 1955, the District Court entered judgment in part, as follows:
'It is therefore ordered, adjudged and decreed that by virtue of Cause No. 131,522 being final the plea of res judicata in this cause (No. 136,762) be and the same is hereby sustained and said cause is dismissed at the cost of the applicant.'
No appeal was taken from the judgment entered in Cause No. 136,762.
Thereafter, in 1958, Harlan G. Shaw caused his motion for new trial in Cause No. 131,522 to be called up for hearing, and on November 24, 1958, the trial court found that said motion for new trial had been abandoned by Harlan G. Shaw when he filed his petition for identical relief in Cause No. 136,762, and dismissed said motion.
Upon appeal, we affirmed said order of the trial court by memorandum decision in Cause No. 38542 of this court.
On April 5, 1960, the said Harlan G. Shaw filed in Cause No. 24530 in the County Court of Oklahoma County, a motion to vacate the aforementioned adoption decree, resulting in this application by Dewey Bruce and Dessie Bruce for a writ of prohibition.
We have held that a District Court has jurisdiction of an action to vacate an adoption decree of a County Court on the ground that same is void, as distinguished from voidable or merely erroneous.
In Laffoon v. Hayden, Okl., 337 P.2d 736, 740, the natural parents of an adopted child brought an action in district court to set aside and vacate an adoption decree on grounds that their consent to the adoption was obtained through duress and fraud. In reversing the action of the district court sustaining a plea to the jurisdiction over the subject matter, we said:
'We are satisfied that the natural parents of these children were entitled to seek relief in the district court in this timely action, which is an action to revoke, vacate and set aside this adoption and the adoption order on account of the fraud alleged in plaintiff's petition, coupled with an action in the nature of habeas corpus.'
See also Phelps v. Young, 149 Okl. 120, 299 P. 461; 2 A.L.R.2d page 890, to the same effect.
We are therefore of the opinion that the District Court of Oklahoma County, in the habeas corpus actions brought by Harlan G. Shaw attacking the validity of the adoption decree, had jurisdiction of the parties and the subject matter, and had the judicial power to adjudicate the validity of said decree.
We agree with respondent's contention that a void judgment cannot constitute res judicata....
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