Lamm v. Chapman

• Decision Date: 11 March 1982
• Docket Number: No. 59922,59922
• Citation: 413 So.2d 749
• Parties: Bonnie Lou Brodie Chapman LAMM, Petitioner, v. Joe Allen CHAPMAN, Respondent.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

Page 749

413 So.2d 749

Bonnie Lou Brodie Chapman LAMM, Petitioner, v. Joe Allen CHAPMAN, Respondent.

No. 59922.

Supreme Court of Florida.

March 11, 1982.

Rehearing Denied May 26, 1982.

Joseph R. Boyd and W. Crit Smith of Boyd & Smith, Tallahassee, and Chriss Walker, Dept. of Health and Rehabilitative Services, Child Support Enforcement, Tallahassee, for petitioner.

Elizabeth S. Baker and Stephen Maher, Legal Services of Greater Miami, Inc., Miami, and Kathy Hamilton of Carres, Gamble & Hamilton, Coral Gables, for respondent.

OVERTON, Judge.

This is a petition to review the decision of the Third District Court of Appeal reported as Chapman v. Lamm, 388 So.2d 1048 (Fla.3d DCA 1980), which assertedly invalidated a remedy provided under section 409.2561, Florida Statutes (1979), which conflicts with the Second District Court of Appeal's holding in Andrews v. Walton, 400 So.2d 790 (Fla.2d DCA 1981). We have jurisdiction under article V, section 3(b)(3), Florida Constitution (1980).

The district court in Chapman determined that sections 409.2561(1)-(3) infringe upon the constitutional right to be free from imprisonment for debt prescribed by article I, section 11, Florida Constitution (1972), to the extent those sections allow the department to institute civil contempt proceedings to collect child support arrearages in repayment of state public assistance payments. Sections 409.2561(1)-(3) authorize the Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services to seek reimbursement from a responsible parent of state public assistance funds paid for the benefit of a dependent child when the parent has failed to pay court-ordered child support. Section 409.2561(3)(c) specifically states that the department may pursue "civil and criminal enforcement of support obligations." It should be noted that the real party in interest as petitioner in this case is not Bonnie Lamm, but is the State of Florida through the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services.

We hold, in agreement with the Second District Court in Andrews, that the department can constitutionally assert the custodial parent's right to enforce the child support obligation through a civil contempt proceeding and disapprove that portion of the Chapman opinion which holds to the contrary. We affirm, however, the finding that, under the circumstances of this case, the trial judge could not properly commit respondent to jail for contempt.

The relevant facts are not in dispute. Petitioner, Bonnie Lou Brodie Chapman Lamm, and respondent, Joe Allen Chapman, were married in 1972; a child, Joe Allen Chapman, Jr., was born in early 1973; a final judgment of dissolution was entered on October 10, 1973, after default by respondent. The final judgment contained a provision requiring respondent to pay $27.50 per week for the support of his minor child. Respondent Chapman was not personally served with notice of the dissolution proceeding, nor does the record show he was personally served with a copy of the final judgment. The affidavit for service of process by publication, filed in 1973, showed that respondent resided in Louisiana.

Respondent did not make any payments to his ex-wife for child support. In May, 1979, the state attorney, acting on behalf of the state and as representative of petitioner pursuant to section 409.2561, filed a petition with the circuit court alleging that Ms. Lamm received public assistance moneys under the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program. The state requested that all support payments from Mr. Chapman be made through the circuit court clerk's office with the clerk directed to forward the payments to the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services. This petition was granted on May 11, 1979. In June, 1979, the state attorney filed a motion for contempt against respondent, who was then residing in Fort Pierce, Florida, for failure to make child support payments.

At the evidentiary hearing on the contempt motion, both respondent and petitioner testified. Neither refuted the state attorney's assertions that respondent's total child support arrearage was $8,135 and that the state had paid petitioner $2,987.50 in public assistance for which it sought reimbursement. The evidence established that respondent was a fishing boat captain; his income tax return for the previous year showed that his gross salary had been approximately $4,379. It was also revealed at the hearing that respondent had remarried and that his second wife was seven months pregnant. On these facts, the trial judge found that respondent had the ability to pay child support, had refused to do so, and was in willful contempt of court. The judge then ordered that respondent be confined to jail for ninety days, though he could purge himself of the contempt by paying $8,135, $2,987.50 of which was to be paid to the State of Florida.

On appeal, the district court reversed the commitment order on three alternative grounds. We agree with the first two findings: (1) the trial court did not acquire personal jurisdiction over respondent in the dissolution proceeding and, therefore, the child support order could not be enforced by a contempt proceeding, Peacock v. Peacock, 160 Fla. 630, 36 So.2d 206 (1948); Gelkop v. Gelkop, 384 So.2d 195 (Fla.3d DCA 1980); Wood v. Wood, 276 So.2d 527 (Fla.3d DCA 1973); and, (2) the record did not support the determination that respondent had the ability to pay the child support, see Faircloth v. Faircloth, 339 So.2d 650 (Fla.1976).

The third ground upon which the district court reversed the contempt order is of considerable significance to the State of Florida. The district court expressly found that the order holding respondent in contempt was constitutionally impermissible because it imprisoned him for money owing to the State of Florida in violation of the guarantee against imprisonment for debt in article I, section 11, Florida Constitution. The district court recognized that the obligation to pay child support or alimony is not considered a debt for purposes of article I, section 11, but is considered a duty owed to the family which may be enforced by contempt proceedings. Faircloth. The district court said, however: "When the obligation has been converted into a debt to a third person, it no longer carries the public necessity for enforcement by imprisonment.... The fact that the State is the third party does not transfer to the State a greater right to the remedy of contempt than that held by a private litigant." 388 So.2d at 1049 (citations omitted). This holding substantially limits the state's choice of remedies when pursuing "civil ... enforcement of support obligations," section 409.2561(3), by prohibiting the state's use of contempt proceedings.

Respondent argues that the language of section 409.2561(1) confirms the correctness of the district court's holding. That section states: "Any payment of public assistance money made to, or for the benefit of, any dependent child creates a debt due and owing to the department by the responsible parent...." Respondent asserts that the use of the term "debt" indicates the legislature's intent to prohibit the state from using contempt to secure reimbursement of the moneys owed to it. Respondent further argues that State ex rel. Cahn v. Mason, 148 Fla. 264, 4 So.2d 255 (1941), controls the disposition of this case. In Cahn, this Court granted a writ of habeas corpus to an ex-husband who had been jailed for contempt. As part of the property settlement, the ex-husband had agreed to assume payments on certain promissory notes and the final divorce decree had required him to make those payments directly to the bank. We found that the ex-husband's liability on the notes constituted a debt owed to the bank even though the liability arose out of a marital obligation formalized in the divorce decree. Since the debt was owed to a third party rather than to the ex-wife, we concluded that the ex-wife could not seek a contempt order to force her ex-husband to make the payments to the bank.

We reject the district court's decision on this issue, as well as respondent's arguments. The error in the argument that the legislature intentionally used the term "debt" in section 409.2561(1) to restrict the state's use of civil contempt becomes clear upon examination of the entire statutory scheme for Aid to Families with Dependent Children. In sections 409.235-.2597, Florida Statutes (1979), the legislature created a comprehensive program to furnish financial and rehabilitative assistance to dependent children and established guidelines for program entitlement and payment. The legislature also expressed the intention to limit the expenditure of public funds for this program by stating: "It is declared to be the public policy of this state that this act be construed and administered to the end that children shall be maintained from the resources of responsible parents, thereby relieving, at least in part, the burden presently borne by the general citizenry through public assistance programs." § 409.2551, Fla.Stat. (1979).

Section 409.2561 is designed to implement this policy...