Caffyn v. Caffyn

• Decision Date: 05 February 2004
• Citation: 806 NE 2d 415,441 Mass. 487
• Parties: LESLIE A. CAFFYN v. BRIAN E. CAFFYN.
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

441 Mass. 487

806 NE 2d 415

LESLIE A. CAFFYN v. BRIAN E. CAFFYN.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Norfolk.

February 5, 2004.

April 20, 2004.

Present: Marshall, C.J., Greaney, Ireland, Spina, Cowin, Sosman, & Cordy, JJ.

David H. Lee (Robert J. Rivers, Jr., with him) for Brian E. Caffyn.

Paul M. Kane (Courtney Vore with him) for Leslie A. Caffyn.

IRELAND, J.

This case raises the first impression question whether a plaintiff in a divorce action who has not complied with the one-year residency requirement of G. L. c. 208, § 5, may, nevertheless, satisfy the alternative jurisdictional requirements of § 5, by asserting domicil after a brief period of residence and claiming that the "cause" for the divorce, namely "an irretrievable breakdown of the marriage" under G. L. c. 208, § 1B, occurred in Massachusetts. Brian E. Caffyn (husband) appeals from an order of the Probate and Family Court denying his motion to dismiss a complaint for divorce filed by Leslie A. Caffyn (wife) based on lack of subject matter jurisdiction. After a single justice of the Appeals Court entered an order granting the husband leave to file an interlocutory appeal "as to the issue of subject matter jurisdiction," we transferred the case on our own motion. Because we conclude that a plaintiff domiciled in Massachusetts may satisfy the jurisdictional requirements of § 5 by making a subjective determination that the marriage became irretrievably broken (pursuant to § 1B) within the Commonwealth, we affirm the Probate and Family Court's denial of the husband's motion to dismiss.

Facts.

The parties were married in Brookline, Massachusetts, on May 30, 1987. After the marriage, the parties resided in Stamford, Connecticut, for approximately one year. Between 1988 and 1990, the husband and the wife lived in Massachusetts for approximately one and one-half years. The parties then moved to Chicago, Illinois, where they resided for approximately six years and where their two children were born. Thereafter, the family relocated to San Diego, California, where they lived for approximately one and one-half years. In approximately 1996 or 1997, the parties and their children moved to Italy, where they resided as a family through the end of June, 2002, when the wife moved to Massachusetts with the children.

Throughout the marriage, the husband and the wife maintained a joint bank account in Massachusetts. The parties also retained pediatricians for their children and came to Massachusetts twice a year for the children to be seen by "their" doctors. The wife alleges (and the husband does not dispute) that each year, the family spent Christmas holidays and a portion of summer vacations in Massachusetts.

Before leaving Italy, the wife arranged for the family's personal belongings to be shipped to Massachusetts, discharged hired help, canceled the children's tutors and therapist, and caused the children's educational records to be sent to Massachusetts. After moving to Massachusetts in June of 2002, the wife opened a bank account in her own name. In late August of 2002, the wife and the husband purchased a residence in Wellesley, with title taken jointly in both their names. They jointly investigated private schools in Massachusetts for the children. The husband purchased, and the wife registered, a vehicle in Massachusetts for the use of the wife and the children. The husband also visited the children in Norwood, where they resided temporarily with their mother and grandparents.¹

Procedural background.

The wife filed a complaint for divorce in the Norfolk County Probate and Family Court on June 28, 2002. Due to procedural flaws, however, that complaint was dismissed. The wife filed a second, essentially identical, complaint on October 15, 2002, in which she sought, inter alia, a dissolution of the marriage pursuant to G. L. c. 208, § 1B,² and alleged that "an irretrievable breakdown of the marriage" occurred on or about June 26, 2002, within the Commonwealth.³

The husband's counsel filed a special appearance and a motion, pursuant to Mass. R. Dom. Rel. P. 12 (b),⁴ to dismiss the wife's complaint for divorce due to lack of subject matter and personal jurisdiction, insufficient service of process, and failure to state a claim on which relief can be granted.⁵ The husband also submitted an affidavit disputing the validity of service of process, which was countered by the process server's affidavit. The wife filed an opposition to the motion. A judge in the Probate and Family Court issued a memorandum of decision and order denying the husband's motion. The husband filed a petition pursuant to G. L. c. 231, § 118, first par., requesting leave to take an interlocutory appeal from the denial. A single justice of the Appeals Court entered an order granting the husband leave to file an interlocutory appeal "as to the issue of subject matter jurisdiction." We transferred this case from the Appeals Court on our own motion.

Discussion.

1. Standard of review. The focus of appellate review of an interlocutory matter is "whether the trial court abused its discretion — that is, whether the court applied proper legal standards and whether the record discloses reasonable support for its evaluation of factual questions." Edwin R. Sage Co. v. Foley, 12 Mass. App. Ct. 20, 25 (1981). The judge's "conclusions of law are subject to broad review and will be reversed if incorrect." Id. at 26.

2. Subject matter jurisdiction under G. L. c. 208, § 5. This case presents us with the question of the meaning of "an irretrievable breakdown of the marriage"⁶ (the so-called "no-fault" divorce provisions under G. L. c. 208, §§ 1A and 1B⁷) as a "cause" for divorce in the context of interpreting G. L. c. 208, § 5, one of the statutes conferring subject matter jurisdiction on the Probate and Family Court Department.⁸ Section 5 provides:

"If the plaintiff has lived in this commonwealth for one year last preceding the commencement of the action if the cause occurred without the commonwealth, or if the plaintiff is domiciled within the commonwealth at the time of the commencement of the action and the cause occurred within the commonwealth, a divorce may be adjudged for any cause allowed by law, unless it appears that the plaintiff has removed into this commonwealth for the purpose of obtaining a divorce."

Specifically, we must decide whether a spouse who has not complied with a statutory one-year residency requirement may satisfy the jurisdictional requirements of § 5 by asserting domicil after a brief period of residence and claiming that the "cause" for the divorce, namely "an irretrievable breakdown of the marriage," "occurred within" Massachusetts.⁹

a. Burden of proof. Because the husband filed a motion to dismiss due to lack of subject matter jurisdiction under Mass. R. Dom. Rel. P. 12 (b) (1), the burden fell on the wife to prove jurisdictional facts. Williams v. Episcopal Diocese of Mass., 436 Mass. 574, 577 n.2 (2002), and cases cited. See Brown v. Tobyne, 9 Mass. App. Ct. 897 (1980).

At the time she filed the complaint for divorce, the wife had not yet satisfied the one-year residency requirement, and thus could not establish jurisdiction on that prong of § 5.¹⁰ Therefore, to establish subject matter jurisdiction under the alternative prong of § 5, the wife had to prove that she was domiciled in Massachusetts when she filed the complaint, that the "cause" for divorce "occurred within" Massachusetts, and that she had not "removed into" Massachusetts to obtain a divorce.

b. Domicil. Domicil has been defined as "the place of one's actual residence with intention to remain permanently or for an indefinite time and without any certain purpose to return to a former place of abode." Fiorentino v. Probate Court, 365 Mass. 13, 17 n.7 (1974), quoting Tuells v. Flint, 283 Mass. 106, 109 (1933). Whether a person has established a domicil in a State is a question of fact for the trial judge. See id. at 21-22. The judge can make "a reasonably accurate determination" of the plaintiff's claim of Massachusetts domicil based on numerous factors, including, without limitation, whether the plaintiff has "a Massachusetts driver's license and automobile registration; whether he or she has purchased a home or has leased an apartment in the Commonwealth; . . . whether any children have been brought to live in Massachusetts; whether personal property, including household goods, has been brought here;. . . whether there is evidence of abandonment of previous domicil, e.g., cancellation of bank accounts, leases, memberships, and so forth, sale of property, and issuance of change of address notices." Fiorentino v. Probate Court, supra at 22 & n.12.¹¹ The length of residence in the State is "one, but only one, relevant consideration" in determining domicil. Id. at 22. See Kennedy v. Simmons, 308 Mass. 431, 434-435 (1941) (domicil established in Massachusetts where person intended to remain permanently but died in hospital one week after arriving in Massachusetts from Florida); Winans v. Winans, 205 Mass. 388, 391-392 (1910) (domicil established in Massachusetts even though person had stayed in Massachusetts for less than two weeks living in hotel while looking for more permanent accommodations). The facts of this case amply support the judge's conclusion that the wife established domicil in the Commonwealth. The husband's actions, such as joining in the purchase of a residence in Massachusetts, paying for the children's private schooling in the Commonwealth, purchasing a motor vehicle for the wife's use and registering the vehicle in Massachusetts, strengthen, rather than contradict, the wife's allegations of domicil. Furthermore, we are of the opinion that the evidence supports the judge's finding that the wife had not "removed into" Massachusetts for the purpose of obtaining a divorce. See Lycurgus v. Lycurgus, 356 Mass. 538, 540-541 (1969).

c. "An irretrievable breakdown of the...