Lewis v. Lewis

• Decision Date: 21 April 2006
• Docket Number: No. 051349.,051349.
• Citation: 628 S.E.2d 314
• Parties: Thomas Randolph LEWIS v. Courtenay Munford LEWIS.
• Court: Virginia Supreme Court

628 S.E.2d 314

Thomas Randolph LEWIS v. Courtenay Munford LEWIS.

No. 051349.

Supreme Court of Virginia.

April 21, 2006.

Donald K. Butler, Richmond (Mary Beth Long; Butler Cook, on briefs), for appellant.

Susanne L. Shilling, Richmond (E. Ryan Meyer; Shilling & Associates, Richmond, on brief), for appellee.

Present: HASSELL, C.J., LACY, KEENAN, KOONTZ, KINSER, and LEMONS, JJ., and COMPTON,^* Senior Justice.

CYNTHIA D. KINSER, Justice.

A panel of the Court of Appeals of Virginia decided that a circuit court's interlocutory decree dismissing a cross-bill for annulment of a marriage "adjudicat[ed] the principles of a cause" and was thus appealable under Code § 17.1-405(4)(ii). Lewis v. Lewis, Record No. 1807-04-2 (May 10, 2005), 2005 WL 1079520 at *2. Because the interlocutory decree did not "respond to the chief object" of the domestic relations dispute and did not determine "`the principles' that are necessary to adjudicate the cause," we conclude that the decree was not appealable to the Court of Appeals. Erikson v. Erikson, 19 Va.App. 389, 391, 451 S.E.2d 711, 713 (1994). The Court of Appeals therefore lacked subject matter jurisdiction to entertain the appeal. For those reasons, we will reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeals.

RELEVANT FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS

The appellee, Courtenay Munford Lewis, filed a bill of complaint in the Circuit Court of Powhatan County in March 2004. In that pleading, she sought a divorce a vinculo matrimonii from the appellant, Thomas Randolph Lewis, and an equitable distribution award. Thomas answered the bill of complaint and denied that the parties are married. He also filed a cross-bill for annulment of the marriage under Code §§ 20-38.1(1) and -89.1.¹ Thomas alleged that his marriage with Courtenay was void on the grounds that, at the time of their marriage on March 1, 1976, Courtenay "was then married to and not validly divorced from Frederick Latimer Wells, whom she had married on July 6, 1963."

Courtenay subsequently filed a motion in limine to preclude Thomas from introducing into evidence certain documents pertaining to her divorce from her former husband. She asserted that Thomas lacked standing to attack the validity of a September 25, 1975 divorce decree between her and Wells entered by the Circuit Court of the City of Richmond. Thus, Courtenay claimed that Thomas could not introduce into evidence with regard to either the divorce or the annulment, a decree of divorce entered on August 30, 1979 by the Circuit Court of Powhatan County in a suit styled Courtenay Munford Wells a/k/a Courtenay Munford Lewis against Frederick L. Wells, nor could he introduce the bill of complaint that she filed in that 1979 proceeding.²

During a hearing on the motion in limine, Courtenay orally moved the circuit court to dismiss the cross-bill for annulment. After considering the parties' memoranda and argument, the circuit court concluded that Thomas lacked standing to attack Courtenay's 1975 decree of divorce and thus granted both the motion in limine and the motion to dismiss the cross-bill for annulment.

Thomas appealed the circuit court's judgment to the Court of Appeals of Virginia. The only question Thomas presented to the Court of Appeals was "[w]hether the trial court erred in dismissing the [c]ross-[b]ill for [a]nnulment and ruling that the marriage between the parties was valid and not void ab initio." The Court of Appeals, however, asked the parties to also address whether the circuit court's dismissal of the cross-bill was an appealable order. Lewis, 2005 WL 1079520 at *2.

With regard to that question, the Court of Appeals concluded that the circuit court, "[b]y holding that [Thomas] cannot attack [Courtenay's] former marriage and by dismissing his suit for annulment, [had,] by implication, determined that a valid marriage exists between [Thomas and Courtenay]." Id., at *2. The circuit court's holding, according to the Court of Appeals, "respond[ed] to the chief object of the suit because it determine[d] the status of the parties' marriage" and thus "adjudicate[d] the principles of a cause." Id.

In deciding that the decree dismissing the cross-bill was appealable, the Court of Appeals distinguished its decision in Erikson. There, the trial court entered a decree finding that the parties' marriage was valid. 19 Va.App. at 390, 451 S.E.2d at 712. The decree did not grant or deny a divorce, spousal support, or any other relief. Id. at 390-91, 451 S.E.2d at 712. The Court of Appeals concluded that the ruling that the parties were validly married did not "adjudicate the principles of a cause" because the ruling did not determine whether a divorce would be granted or upon what grounds, nor did it "determine the rules or methods by which the ultimate decision in the divorce [would] be adjudicated, thereby requiring only the application of those principles to the facts of the case to decide the issues." Id. at 391, 451 S.E.2d at 713. Thus, the Court of Appeals concluded that the interlocutory decree in Erikson was not appealable under former Code § 17-116.05(4) (now Code § 17.1-405(4)) and that the Court of Appeals was therefore without jurisdiction to entertain the appeal. Id. at 391-92, 451 S.E.2d at 713. Because the interlocutory decree presently at issue actually dismissed a cross-bill for annulment whereas the interlocutory decree in Erikson merely held that the parties' marriage was valid, the Court of Appeals in the case before us concluded that Erikson is factually distinguishable and not controlling. Lewis, at *3.

Thomas then petitioned for an appeal to this Court. Concluding that the decision of the Court of Appeals involved a matter having significant precedential value, see Code §§ 17.1-410(B) and -411, we awarded Thomas this appeal. Contrary to the position that he asserted before the Court of Appeals, Thomas now claims that the Court of Appeals erred in deciding that the circuit court's order dismissing the cross-bill for annulment is an appealable interlocutory order under Code § 17.1-405(4)(ii). That assignment of error frames the dispositive issue before us.

ANALYSIS

"The Court of Appeals of Virginia is a court of limited jurisdiction." Canova Elec. Contracting, Inc. v. LMI Ins. Co., 22 Va.App. 595, 599, 471 S.E.2d 827, 829 (1996). Unless a statute confers subject matter jurisdiction to that court over a class of appeals, the Court of Appeals is without authority to review an appeal. Id. As pertinent to the case before us, the provisions of Code § 17.1-405 grant subject matter jurisdiction to the Court of Appeals over "[a]ny final . . . decree of a circuit court involving . . . [a]ffirmance or annulment of a marriage; . . . divorce; [and a]ny interlocutory decree . . . entered in [such] cases . . . adjudicating the principles of a cause." Code §§ 17.1-405(3)(a), (b) and -405(4)(ii).

Relying on Equitable Life Assurance Soc'y v. Wilson, 110 Va. 571, 573, 66 S.E. 836, 837 (1910), Courtenay argues that the cross-bill was a pleading that alleged new facts and prayed for affirmative relief, and would therefore remain for disposition if the bill of complaint were dismissed. It must then follow, according to Courtenay, that the decree dismissing the cross-bill was an appealable order as the "`chief object' of [Thomas'] suit was for the court to determine the status of" his marriage to Courtenay. She also asserts that all the cases cited by Thomas, including Erikson, are inapposite because in each case only a bill of complaint for divorce had been filed.

Courtenay's argument, as well as the decision of the Court of Appeals, turns on the fact that Thomas filed a cross-bill seeking affirmative relief in the nature of an annulment.

The primary purposes of a cross-bill are to obtain affirmative relief on behalf of the defendant . . . filing such a bill, and to obtain in the course of one proceeding a full and complete determination of all issues which arise out of, or which are connected with, the subject matter of the original bill.

Brewer v. Brewer, 199 Va. 626, 628, 101 S.E.2d 516, 518 (1958); cf. Shevel's, Inc. v. Southeastern Assocs., Inc., 228 Va. 175, 184, 320 S.E.2d 339, 344 (1984) (if a defendant presents a claim for affirmative relief in a defensive pleading, the trial court may in its discretion treat the answer as a cross-bill). Because Thomas sought affirmative relief in the cross-bill, as opposed to filing a merely defensive cross-bill, it is correct, as Courtenay asserts, that dismissal of the original bill of complaint would not necessarily result in a dismissal of the cross-bill. Equitable Life Assurance Soc'y, 110 Va. at 573-74, 66 S.E. at 837. Even so, neither the fact that Thomas used a cross-bill to seek affirmative relief in the nature of an annulment nor the tenets associated with a cross-bill resolve the issue before us. We must, instead, apply the well-established principles setting the parameters of an interlocutory order that adjudicates the principles of a cause.

Many years before the establishment of the Court of Appeals of Virginia, this Court, in addressing our own jurisdiction, see Code § 3454 (1887), recognized the difficulty in defining the phrase "adjudicating the principles of [a] cause" in such a manner as to fit every case, but we, nevertheless, stated

it must mean that the rules or methods by which the rights of the parties are to be finally worked out have been so far determined that it is only necessary to apply these rules or methods to the facts of the case in order to ascertain the relative rights of the parties with regard to the subject matter of the suit.

Lancaster v. Lancaster, 86 Va. (11 Hans.) 201, 204-05, 9 S.E. 988, 990 (1889); accord Lee v. Lee, 142 Va. 244, 252-53, 128 S.E. 524, 527 (1925); Vinson v. Vinson, 41 Va.App. 675, 683, 588 S.E.2d 392, 396 (2003); Pinkard v. Pinkard, 12 Va.App. 848, 851, 407 S.E.2d 339, 341 (1991). The phrase "refers to principles which affect the subject matter of the...