Fehlhaber v. Fehlhaber

Citation681 F.2d 1015
Decision Date06 August 1982
Docket NumberNo. 79-2819,79-2819
PartiesVerone Marin FEHLHABER, Plaintiff-Appellee-Cross Appellant, v. Robert F. FEHLHABER, Defendant-Appellant-Cross Appellee. . Unit B * Unit B
CourtUnited States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (5th Circuit)

Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, Mark Charles Morril, Paul Johnson Newlon, Lewis Richard Clayton, New York City, Linwood C. Cabot, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., for defendant-appellant-cross appellee.

Woodrow M. Melvin, Jr., Miami, Fla., R. Stephen Duke, Max C. Fink, Beverly Hills, Cal., for plaintiff-appellee-cross appellant.

Appeals from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

ON PETITION FOR REHEARING EN BANC

Before GODBOLD, Chief Judge, HATCHETT, Circuit Judge, and MARKEY **, Chief Judge.

GODBOLD, Chief Judge:

After considering appellee's petition for rehearing en banc and appellant's response thereto, we grant rehearing and withdraw our prior opinion in this case, 669 F.2d 990 (5th Cir. 1982), and issue the following in its stead:

Appellee Verone Fehlhaber brought this diversity of citizenship action in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida seeking recognition and enforcement of two judgments entered against her husband in a California action for legal separation. Appellant Fred Fehlhaber seeks to collaterally attack these judgments.

I. Facts

Verone and Fred were married in 1961 in New York. In 1967 they moved to Indian Creek Village, Florida, where they had built a house and where Fred eventually was elected mayor. Beginning in 1969 the Fehlhabers began spending several months a year in California. Fred contends that this was their vacation site; Verone contends that California was their domicile and vacations were taken in Florida. In April 1974 Verone left Fred and moved to California and on May 17, 1974 she filed an action in California court for legal separation, spousal support, attorney's fees, and a determination of her marital property rights. Fred was personally served in Florida June 5. Six days later, June 11, Fred filed a petition in Florida for dissolution of the marriage. Verone was personally served in California.

Fred then made a special appearance in California to contest the court's exercise of personal jurisdiction over him, and lost. He did not file an answer to the complaint, took no further action in defense of the cause, and was declared in default August 19.

Fred pursued his Florida divorce action in defiance of an injunction by the California court. Verone never made an appearance in the Florida case, and the Florida court dissolved the Fehlhabers' marriage July 23, 1974, before the California court had entered any judgments. Nevertheless, the California separation proceedings continued, and in a judgment entered October 4, 1974 the court ordered legal separation and granted Verone $8,500 a month in support retroactive to August 1 and $45,000 in attorney's fees and court costs, while expressly reserving all issues regarding the division of property.

To resolve the reserved property issues Verone served on Fred, who was still in default, a request for admissions concerning the value of their marital property. Fred did not respond. The California court, acting through a judge pro tem, took these unanswered requests as admitted and found that the marital estate was worth $19,994,711.14. Rather than dividing the assets in kind, in its March 12, 1976 judgment the court awarded Fred all of the property and awarded Verone a money judgment of $9,997,355.57 as a cash equalization of her share of the property, plus $30,000 for costs and attorney's fees.

With jurisdiction grounded upon diversity of citizenship, 28 U.S.C. § 1332, Verone brought an action in federal district court in Florida to enforce these two California judgments. 1 Fred, in an effort to persuade the district court not to enforce the presumptively valid judgments, based his defense upon numerous challenges to the jurisdiction of the California court and to the validity of that court's judgments. The district court rejected all of Fred's challenges and, considering itself bound by the full faith and credit clause of the U.S. Constitution, granted summary judgment for Verone and entered judgment in her favor: (1) for $516,750, consisting of $471,750 unpaid support from August 1, 1974 and $45,000 unpaid suit costs and attorney's fees; and (2) for $12,114,991.41, consisting of the unpaid cash award of $9,997,355.57 plus interest thereon of $2,081,390.09, and the unpaid attorney's fees and costs of $30,000 plus interest thereon of $6,245.75.

On appeal Fred contends that the district court was in error for the following reasons:

(1) The California judgments are subject to collateral attack;

(2) The Florida divorce divested the California court of jurisdiction over Verone's legal separation action;

(3) The court was not empowered to award a cash offset instead of a division of property;

(4) The default procedures used violated Fred's due process rights; and

(5) The California court unconstitutionally exercised jurisdiction over Fred's property located out of state.

We first outline the requirements of full faith and credit and the rules of collateral attack, and then we examine the asserted defects in the California judgments. We conclude that the judgments are valid and immune from collateral attack except that the judgment of property division grants relief partially in excess of the amount encompassed in Verone's complaint.

II. Full faith and credit and collateral attack

Title 28 U.S.C. § 1738 requires that we give to the California judgments "the same full faith and credit as they have by law or usage in the courts of (California)." 2 A two-level analysis is employed to determine whether a state court judgment must be enforced under this provision. See Williams v. North Carolina, 325 U.S. 226, 228-29, 65 S.Ct. 1092, 1094, 89 L.Ed. 1577 (1945). Where full faith and credit applies a judgment need be given only "the same credit, validity, and effect ... which it had in the state where it was pronounced." Williams, supra, 325 U.S. at 228, 65 S.Ct. at 1094. Thus, if a state court judgment is subject to collateral attack in the state that rendered it, the judgment may be collaterally attacked in federal court. 3 Therefore, Verone's contention that California law should be ignored and that Fred should be required to repair to California courts for his collateral attack is patently incorrect.

The requirement of full faith and credit is tempered, however, by "some basic limitations." Underwriters National Assurance Co. v. North Carolina Life and Accident and Health Insurance Guaranty Assoc., --- U.S. ----, ----, 102 S.Ct. 1357, 1365, 71 L.Ed.2d 558, 570 (1982). The chief such limitation is that full faith and credit will not be given a judgment if the rendering court did not have jurisdiction over the parties and the subject matter. Id. 4 Thus the requirement of full faith and credit does not initially attach if the judgment suffers jurisdictional defects that render it void. A judgment is not always open for collateral attack on the grounds of lack of jurisdiction, however. Federal principles of res judicata and collateral estoppel apply even to jurisdictional issues. Id. at ----, 102 S.Ct. at 1366; see note 27 infra.

To summarize this two-level analysis, collateral attack of the California judgments might occur under two sets of principles. Under federal principles we determine whether the judgments possess the requisite validity to apply full faith and credit. If full faith and credit applies we look to state law to determine how much credit they deserve. 5 Conversely put, the California judgments are not to be enforced if they are subject to successful collateral attack either under the "basic limitations" of federal law or under California law. 6

III. The effect of the prior Florida divorce

During the pendency of Verone's California suit for legal separation, and before any judgment was entered, Fred obtained in Florida a presumptively valid divorce. 7 Subsequently the California court entered a judgment of legal separation and entered the two monetary judgments concerning spousal support and property rights sought to be enforced here. Fred contends that, despite the fact that the Florida decree did not purport to adjudicate support and property rights, the Florida decree had the effect under California law of depriving the California court of further jurisdiction over Verone's legal separation action. We assume arguendo that the prior Florida decree is a matter for collateral attack 8 and find that the Florida divorce did not affect the power or jurisdiction of the California court over the judgments enforced here.

In California "prior dissolution of the marriage is ... a complete defense to ... an action (for legal separation)." DeYoung v. DeYoung, 27 Cal.2d 521, 527, 165 P.2d 457, 460 (1946) (Schauer, J., concurring); Hudson v. Hudson, 52 Cal.2d 735, 344 P.2d 295, 299-300 (1959); Patterson v. Patterson, 82 Cal.App.2d 838, 187 P.2d 113, 115 (1947). This requirement of a marriage is a "jurisdictional prerequisite." Colbert v. Colbert, 28 Cal.2d 276, 169 P.2d 633, 635 (1946); Knox v. Knox, 88 Cal.App.2d 666, 199 P.2d 766, 773 (1948). Fred argues, therefore, that the California court was without subject matter jurisdiction to enter any of its judgments.

This argument reasons too broadly. The rationale for the rule that marriage is a prerequisite to such actions is that a prior divorce moots the prayer for legal separation or divorce. Hudson, 344 P.2d at 299 (divorce). This does not mean, however, that the prayers for relief concerning the financial matters incident to marriage are mooted. Under the concept of "divisible divorce" a prior divorce does not automatically adjudicate property and support rights. See Comment, Post-Dissolution Suits to Divide Community Property: A Proposal for Legislative...

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