Dwyer v. Clerk of Dist. Court for Scott County, 86-389
| Decision Date | 15 April 1987 |
| Docket Number | No. 86-389,86-389 |
| Citation | 404 N.W.2d 167 |
| Parties | Eugene F. DWYER, Appellant, v. CLERK OF the DISTRICT COURT FOR SCOTT COUNTY, Appellee. |
| Court | Iowa Supreme Court |
Stephen P. Wing of Dwyer & Wing, P.C., Davenport, for appellant.
Thomas J. Miller, Atty. Gen., Stephen C. Robinson, Asst. Atty. Gen., and Realff Otteson, Asst. Co. Atty., for appellee.
Considered en banc.
Plaintiff Eugene F. Dwyer appeals from the denial of a writ of mandamus to compel the clerk of court of the Iowa District Court for Scott County to enter on the judgment docket a satisfaction affidavit executed by Dwyer's ex-wife for child support payments made directly to her, not through the office of the clerk of court. We reverse and remand the case to district court for the issuance of the requested writ.
I. Background facts and proceedings. In August 1983 a decree was entered dissolving the marriage of Eugene Dwyer and his former wife. The dissolution decree required Dwyer to pay child support in the amount of $212.50 per month for each of the couple's two children and to pay certain medical and tuition expenses for the children. As required by Iowa Code section 598.22 (1983), the decree directed Dwyer to make these payments through the office of the clerk of the district court. Dwyer and his former wife agreed, however, that he would make the payments directly to his ex-wife, bypassing the clerk of court.
In this action, there has never been an assignment of the child support payments by Dwyer's ex-wife to the Iowa Department of Human Services. See Iowa Code ch. 252C. The department is not a party to this mandamus proceeding nor was it a party to the underlying dissolution of marriage action.
From 1983 to 1985 Dwyer made the payments, as agreed, directly to his ex-wife. In July 1984 and October 1985 Dwyer filed with the clerk of court sworn affidavits of his ex-wife who acknowledged receipt of the child support payments. The clerk accepted these documents for filing and noted them on the judgment docket. In December 1985 Dwyer sought to file another similar affidavit of satisfaction; however, on this occasion the clerk of court accepted the affidavit for filing but refused to enter the satisfaction affidavit on the dissolution judgment docket. The clerk of court based this refusal on Iowa Code section 598.22, which requires child support payments to be made to the clerk of court, and on a 1985 amendment to that section which specifies that payments to any other person do not satisfy the underlying support obligation. 1985 Iowa Acts ch. 178, § 8 ().
Dwyer filed a petition seeking a writ of mandamus to compel the clerk of court to enter the satisfaction affidavit on the judgment docket. See Iowa Code ch. 661 (1985). The district court denied mandamus relief, and Dwyer has appealed. The scope of review of this equity action is de novo. Iowa Code § 661.3; Iowa R.App.P. 4.
Mandamus is a special action under Iowa Code chapter 661 "brought to obtain an order commanding an inferior tribunal, board, corporation, or person to do ... an act, the performance ... of which the law enjoins as a duty resulting from an office, trust, or station." Iowa Code § 661.1; see Stafford v. Valley Community School Dist., 298 N.W.2d 307, 309 (Iowa 1980). The action seeks to enforce established rights and corresponding duties imposed by law. Stafford, 298 N.W.2d at 309.
In his mandamus action, Dwyer seeks to compel the clerk of court to note the satisfaction affidavit on the dissolution judgment docket. Dwyer argues the clerk of court is under a statutory duty to record or note the satisfaction, and he also claims section 598.22, as amended, is constitutionally infirm. Specifically he argues the section denies equal protection of the law by requiring child support judgment debtors to make payments through the clerk of court while other judgment debtors can satisfy their obligations privately. This requirement, he asserts, has no rational relationship to the goal of enforcing child support obligations against nonpaying parents. Dwyer also contends the statutory language is unconstitutionally overbroad. Due to our resolution of his first argument we need not address Dwyer's constitutional challenges to the statute on its face and as applied to him.
II. Duty of clerk of district court to record the satisfaction of judgment. The general duties the clerk of the district court shall perform are specified in Iowa Code section 602.8102 (Supp.1985). Subsection 602.8102(98) imposes a duty on the clerk of court to carry out duties specified in Iowa Code sections 624.8 through 624.21 and section 624.37. Iowa Code section 624.20 (1985) states, "Where a judgment is set aside or satisfied by execution or otherwise, the clerk shall at once enter a memorandum thereof on the column left for that purpose in the judgment docket."
The clear duty of Dwyer's former wife to execute a satisfaction of judgment is imposed on her by statute at Iowa Code section 624.37. That section provides:
When the amount due upon judgment is paid off, or satisfied in full, the party entitled to the proceeds thereof, or those acting for that party, must acknowledge satisfaction thereof upon the record of such judgment, or by the execution of an instrument referring to it, duly acknowledged and filed in the office of the clerk in every county wherein the judgment is a lien. A failure to do so for thirty days after having been requested in writing shall subject the delinquent party to a penalty of fifty dollars, to be recovered in an action therefor by the party aggrieved.
Iowa Code § 624.37 (emphasis added).
The clerk of court, even though aware of these provisions, refused to note on the dissolution judgment docket the December 1985 satisfaction of judgment affidavit executed by Dwyer's ex-wife and presented for filing by Dwyer. Relying on an Iowa attorney general's letter opinion, the clerk asserted that the 1985 amendment of Iowa Code section 598.22 prohibited the noting of the satisfaction affidavit on the judgment docket. The amended statute reads in relevant part:
All orders or judgments entered under chapter 252A, chapter 675, or this chapter which provide for temporary or permanent support payments shall direct the payment of such sums to the clerk of the district court for the use of the person for whom the payments have been awarded. Payments to persons other than the clerk of the district court do not satisfy the support obligations created by such orders or judgments....
....
An order or judgment entered by the court for temporary or permanent support or for an assignment shall be filed with the clerk. The orders have the same force and effect as judgments when entered in the judgment docket and lien index and are records open to the public. The clerk shall disburse the payments received pursuant to the orders or judgments within ten working days of the receipt of the payments. All moneys received or disbursed under this section shall be entered in a record book kept by the clerk, which shall be open to the public. The clerk shall not enter any moneys paid in the record book if not paid directly to the clerk....
Iowa Code § 598.22 (Supp.1985) (emphasis added).
Our rules of statutory construction direct us to give effect, if possible, to both general and special provisions of the code that apparently conflict. Iowa Code § 4.7 (1985). See generally 2A N. Singer, Sutherland Statutory Construction ch. 51 (Sands 4th ed. 1984) ( statutes in pari materia).
This mandamus action is directed at a clerk of court's duty to file and note papers presented by parties to an action, the petitioner and respondent in the underlying dissolution of marriage case. The clerk has a ministerial duty to file and note satisfactions of judgment presented to the clerk. Iowa Code §§ 602.8102(98), 624.20. Section 598.22, as amended, does not relieve the clerk of the duty to file and note satisfactions. Section 598.22 merely puts in question the validity or legal effect of a satisfaction of child support judgment document executed by a recipient former spouse who accepts payments outside the clerk's office.
Dwyer does not challenge the provision of section 598.22 that prohibits the clerk from entering moneys paid outside the clerk's office in the clerk's record book concerning child support. The clerk maintains two sets of books relating to dissolutions and child support payments in the clerk's office. The alimony and child support payment book, referred to in section 598.22, is a ledger of the cash and checks received by the clerk and the disbursement made of those moneys. This is the record book mandated by title 42, subsection 654(10) of the United States Code (1982). Dwyer concedes his payments should not be recorded in this book because the payments were not channeled through the clerk's office.
The clerk also maintains a dissolution judgment docket that recites the date events occur in the file. See Iowa Code § 602.8104(2)(b) (Supp.1985). The docket notes when a decree ordering the payment of child support has been entered. It also leaves spaces for the notation of executions and satisfactions of judgment. Section 598.22 does not refer to this judgment docket, on which Dwyer seeks to compel the clerk to note his ex-wife's satisfaction affidavit and to which Iowa Code section 624.20 (1985) specifically refers.
The clerk of the district court is under a duty pursuant to subsection 602.8102(98) to file and note all documents presented to the clerk for filing. It is not the clerk's duty or function to rule on the validity or legal effect of the document so received. Cf. Proctor v. Garrett, 378 N.W.2d 298, 299 (Iowa 1985) ().
In Proctor v. Garrett, farmers attempting to record common-law liens against their properties...
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