Derleth v. Jamie L. Derleth & State

• Decision Date: 24 June 2014
• Docket Number: No. WD 76634.,WD 76634.
• Citation: 432 S.W.3d 771
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals
• Parties: Joseph C. DERLETH, Appellant, v. Jamie L. DERLETH and State of Missouri, Respondents.

432 S.W.3d 771

Joseph C. DERLETH, Appellant,

v.Jamie L. DERLETH and State of Missouri, Respondents.

No. WD 76634.

Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District.

May 13, 2014. Motion for Rehearing and/or Transfer to Supreme Court Denied June 24, 2014.

Daniel David Lane, Independence, MO, for Appellant.

John R. Suermann, Jefferson City, MO, for State of Missouri, Respondent.

Jamie L. Derleth, Lee's Summit, MO, Respondent Acting Pro Se.

Before Division One JOSEPH M. ELLIS, PJ., KAREN KING MITCHELL, ANTHONY REX GABBERT, JJ.

ANTHONY REX GABBERT, Judge.

Joseph C. Derleth ¹ appeals the circuit court's judgment affirming an administrative decision of the Family Support Division which concluded that Derleth's child support arrears totaled $13,139.06 as of January 30, 2009. This judgment stemmed from Derleth's petition for judicial review contesting the Division's child support arrearage calculation which Derleth argues erroneously led to garnishment of his bank funds in the amount of $6,872.06 and a tax intercept in the amount of $1,928.00. Derleth asserts five points on appeal. First, he claims that the circuit court erred in determining that his funds were correctly seized based on the Division's arrearage calculation because the court misapplied the law in finding that collateral estoppel applied regarding a 1996 order because, pursuant to Section 536.140.2(3) ²; 536.140.2(4), 536.140.2(6) and 536.140.2(7), the amount of support owed as stated in the 1996 order is an extraneous finding, conflicts with the finding in a 2002 order, and contains a mathematical error. Second, Derleth charges that the circuit court erred in determining the funds were correctly seized because the decision is against the weight of the evidence and fails to consider evidence as required by Section 536.140.2(3) since the evidence overwhelmingly supports a finding of overpayment of child support. Third, Derleth contends that the circuit court erred in determining that the funds were correctly seized because the determination violates Section 536.140.2(6) in that it is a mathematical impossibility to come to the conclusions in the June 1996 order based on the start date in the original 1990 order and considering the number of payments due and the evidence of the number of payments made. Fourth, Derleth argues that the circuit court erred in determining that the funds were correctly seized because the failure to hold a hearing violated Sections 536.140.2(5) and 536.140.3 in that a hearing is allowed and was requested but a judgment was entered withoutan opportunity to present evidence de novo. Finally, Derleth argues that the circuit court erred in determining that the funds were correctly seized because the court's judgment misapplied the law and violated Section 452.370.1 in that the amounts adjudged due exceed the amounts mathematically due under the July 10, 1990 order and, therefore, the court's ruling modifies the amount of child support due under the 1990 order without finding a substantial and continuing change of circumstances. We affirm.

On January 30, 2009, the Family Support Division issued a Notice of Lien to Financial Institution that notified Derleth and his financial institution of claimed child support arrearages. The Division held an administrative hearing at Derleth's request. The hearing officer determined that, as of January 30, 2009, Derleth's child support arrears totaled $13,139.06. This calculation was arrived at by acknowledging that a June 25, 1996 order by the circuit court determined Derleth's arrearage as of that date to be $17,067.00. Using that judicial determination as a starting point, the hearing officer added all child support payments accruing and subtracted all payments credited after June 25, 1996. Derleth filed a timely petition for judicial review with the crux of his argument being that the $17,067.00 figure was a gratuitous finding by the court that was mathematically impossible and, therefore, should not have been the starting point for the Division's calculations. The circuit court affirmed the agency's decision and adopted the agency's administrative order. Derleth appeals.

In an appeal following judicial review of an agency's administrative decision, the appellate court reviews the decision of the agency, not the circuit court. Schumer v. Lee, 404 S.W.3d 443, 446 (Mo.App.2013). Pursuant to Section 536.140.2, we determine whether the action of the agency: (1) is in violation of a constitutional provision, (2) is in excess of the agency's statutory authority or jurisdiction, (3) is unsupported by competent and substantial evidence upon the whole record, (4) is otherwise unauthorized by law, (5) is made upon unlawful procedure or without a fair trial, (6) is arbitrary, capricious, or unreasonable, or (7) involves an abuse of discretion. Id.

Derleth's first, second, third, and fifth points on appeal all hinge on the dispositive issue of whether the agency erroneously determined that $17,067.00 was the accurate starting point for the child support arrearage calculations. We find that the agency correctly relied on the circuit court's 1996 order and that Derleth's attempts to negate that order are barred by collateral estoppel.

Collateral estoppel, or issue preclusion, bars relitigation of an issue already decided in a different cause of action. Rosenberg v. Shostak, 405 S.W.3d 8, 13 (Mo.App.2013).

Collateral estoppel applies when: (1) the issue in the present case is identical to an issue decided in the prior adjudication; (2) the court in the prior adjudication rendered a judgment on the merits; (3) the party against whom collateral estoppel is asserted is the same party or in privity with a party in the prior adjudication; and (4) the party against whom collateral estoppel is asserted had a full and fair opportunity to litigate the issue in the prior suit.

Id.

Here, Derleth seeks to avoid the arrearage determination made by the circuit court on June 25, 1996, by arguing that the $17,067.00 figure the court arrived at was a “gratuitous” finding. He argues that “[j]ustice and equity demand the Court not turn a blind eye under some tortured theory of collateral estoppel [based on] the gratuitous and mathematically impossible finding which is the only thing which supports the Order in this case.” We find no support in the record for Derleth's contention that the $17,067.00 calculation was gratuitous.

In 1996, Jamie Derleth filed a request for garnishment against Derleth for unpaid child support. Derleth filed a motion to quash garnishment alleging that garnishment was against the weight of the evidence and filed documents that he purported established his current child support status. He alleged that “equity requires the intervention of this Court” and requested a hearing “to determine the rights of the parties.” In response, Jamie Derleth requested that, because there was a genuine controversy as to the amount of unpaid child support due and owing, the court “conduct a hearing so that the true amount of arrearage may be determined by the court.” On June 25, 1996, the parties appeared before the court which entered an order concluding:

After considering evidence adduced at trial, considering statements made by respective counsel for the parties and after considering all other relevant evidence brought before this court, Petitioner's Motion to Quash Garnishment is hereby overruled and the court has determined that petitioner's current arrearage for unpaid child support for this case and at this time is $17,067.00.

Thus, aside from Jamie Derleth specifically asking the court in 1996 to determine Derleth's child support arrearage after Derleth filed his motion to quash garnishment, the court necessarily had to make a determination as to child support arrearage when Derleth filed his motion alleging that garnishment was against the weight of the evidence. The only way the court could have determined if garnishment was against the weight of the evidence in the amounts of arrearage alleged by Jamie Derleth, and contested by Derleth, was to determine actual arrearage.

Derleth's additional argument that the June 25, 1996 arrearage determination should be ignored as mathematically impossible is barred by collateral estoppel.³ Derleth was a party to the 1996 litigation and had a full and fair opportunity to litigate the arrearage issue in that suit. Derleth had an opportunity to contest that determination and he did so. After the court entered an Order for Garnishee to Pay into Court and for Court Administrator to Pay Judgment Creditor, Derleth filed Objections to Entry of Order. Derleth contended that the issues before the court were a Motion to Quash Garnishment and, therefore, an order evidencing an exact amount of child support due was outside the pleadings and inappropriate. Derleth also filed Suggestions in Opposition to Motion of Petitioner to Pay Proceeds from Court Registry. Therein Derleth contended that: the court's child support determination was in error, the court allowed impeachment of some child support records by other records which were not the current child support records, the court failed to take into account a 1993 affidavit signed by Jamie Derleth, the court failed to take into consideration that a previous child support order ended when he and Jamie Derleth remarried, and the court's ruling conflicted with a Division of Family Services IV–D administrative case. On October 5, 1996, Derleth filed a Motion to Set Aside Order for Garnishee to Pay into Court and for Court Administrator to Pay Judgment Creditor due to allegedly having been given inadequate notice of the same. Derleth noticed the matter up for hearing on May 15, 1997. Neither Derleth nor his counsel appeared for the hearing and the court entered an order stating: “Joseph C. Derleth's motion to set aside this court's June 25, 1996, order comes before this court.... [T]his court hereby overrules petitioner Joseph...