Lewis v. Roskin
| Decision Date | 14 February 1995 |
| Docket Number | No. 65184,65184 |
| Citation | 895 S.W.2d 190 |
| Parties | Frank Joseph LEWIS, Plaintiff/Appellant, v. Linda Rae ROSKIN, formerly known as Linda Rae Lewis, Defendant/Respondent, and State of Missouri, Division of Child Support Enforcement, Defendant. STATE of Missouri, ex rel., Linda Rae ROSKIN, formerly known as Linda Rae Lewis, Plaintiff/Respondent, v. Frank Joseph LEWIS, Defendant/Appellant. |
| Court | Missouri Court of Appeals |
Phillip K. Gebhardt, St. Louis, for appellant.
Jeffrey P. Gault, Wood & Gault, Clayton, Preston E. Roskin, Roskin & Leeds, Clayton, for respondent.
Father, Frank Joseph Lewis, appeals from an order of the Circuit Court of St. Louis County modifying a Texas child support decree by extending child support until his son reached age twenty-two or completed his college education. The Texas decree had provided that father's child support payments would terminate when his son reached age eighteen. Father challenges the trial court's action under the full faith and credit clause of the United States Constitution. He also raises challenges to the computation and amount of the award, the absence of parties, and the registration of the Texas decree. We affirm.
Father and mother, Linda Rae Roskin, were married in Missouri on June 12, 1970 and were thereafter divorced in Harris County, Texas, on September 30, 1976. Two children, a daughter and a son, were born of the marriage. The decree ordered father to pay child support in the amount of $350 per month until his youngest child, the son, turned eighteen. Son was to turn eighteen on June 6, 1991.
Father was employed by a business which provided contract management services to hospitals. He testified this employment required him to move frequently. After the parties were separated in June, 1976, father moved to Kansas (June, 1976--October, 1978), Missouri (October, 1978--August, 1981), Kansas (August, 1981--July, 1989), Texas (July, 1989--February, 1991), Florida (February, 1991--September, 1992), and New Jersey (October, 1992--date of hearing). In 1978 mother and son moved to Missouri, where they remained through this proceeding.
On February 18, 1988 the Missouri Division of Child Support Enforcement (DCSE) filed an Administrative Order in the Circuit Court of St. Louis County pursuant to § 454.476 RSMo 1986 of the Uniform Reciprocal Enforcement of Support Act [URESA] ordering father to pay $350 per month for son's current support until he reached age twenty-one or became legally emancipated. The order also directed father to pay his child support arrearages. On May 26, 1988 DCSE filed an Amended Administrative Order which terminated support payments when son was legally emancipated. These orders were filed in Cause No. 572989, State of Missouri ex rel. Linda Rae Lewis v. Frank Joseph Lewis.
On February 17, 1989 father filed a motion to modify the amended order pursuant to §§ 452.370 RSMo (Cum.Supp.1989) and 454.500 RSMo (Cum.Supp.1989). He sought a reduction of the $350 monthly support and credit for support provided to parties' daughter who no longer resided with mother.
On August 8, 1989 father filed his First Amended Motion to Modify and For Other Relief to which he attached and incorporated an authenticated copy of the Texas decree. Count I requested the Texas decree to be registered and recognized in St. Louis County, Missouri under § 511.760 RSMo 1986, the Uniform Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Law [UEFJL]. Count II prayed for modification of child support relating to the parties' daughter under § 452.370. Count III requested reimbursement of sums father expended for daughter's support.
On December 27, 1989 father filed a petition as plaintiff in a separate action in St. Louis County, Cause No. 604946, in which he named mother and the State of Missouri as defendants. In Count I father prayed for registration and recognition of the Texas decree in St. Louis County pursuant to the UEFJL. He alleged that an authenticated copy of the Texas decree had been filed in Cause No. 572989 and he incorporated it in the present action by reference. He also filed a copy of the decree. Count II requested a declaratory judgment finding that the Administrative Order was a "decree" which could be modified under § 452.370. Count III requested a declaratory judgment finding that DCSE's Administrative Order violated father's due process rights. Count IV prayed for recovery of money father expended for daughter's support. Count V requested a declaratory judgment to credit the recognized arrearage with the amount father paid to mother for daughter's support.
On February 5, 1990 mother filed an answer to this petition in which she admitted the allegations of Count I and prayed for registration of the Texas decree. She denied the allegations of the remaining counts and asked that they be dismissed. Subsequently the trial court dismissed Counts II-V with leave to amend.
Also on February 5, 1990 mother filed her Cross-Motion to Modify the Texas decree under Rule 88 alleging a substantial and continuing change of circumstances. In her motion mother reincorporated and adopted by reference the authenticated copy of the Texas decree attached to father's First Amended Motion to Modify. She requested both an increase in support and an extension of the term of support beyond the age of eighteen so son could pursue higher education.
On February 9, 1990 the trial court consolidated the two actions. On March 28, 1990 father filed his First Amended Petition. He requested the same relief as in his original petition in Cause No. 604946, but added DCSE as a defendant. In her original and amended answers, mother again admitted the allegations of Count I and requested registration of the Texas decree. She denied the remaining allegations. DCSE moved to dismiss for failure to exhaust administrative remedies.
On December 20, 1990 mother filed her Cross-Motion to Modify and/or Petition under the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act [UCCJA], § 452.440-452.550 RSMo 1986. She requested the St. Louis County court issue an order establishing custody and child support on son's behalf.
On April 5, 1991 the trial court granted DCSE's motion to dismiss. On May 10, 1991 on father's Motion for Reconsideration and/or Clarification the trial court ordered father's First Amended Petition in Cause No. 604946 and First Amended Motion to Modify in Cause No. 572989 dismissed with prejudice and made its order final for purposes of appeal. We affirmed the dismissals in Lewis v. Roskin, 823 S.W.2d 152 (Mo.App.1992).
Father next filed a Motion for Summary Judgment on mother's Cross-Motion and/or Petition Under the UCCJA (filed December 20, 1990). The trial court granted father's Motion for Summary Judgment and set mother's pending Cross-Motion to Modify (filed February 5, 1990) for hearing on November 3, 1993. Both parties testified at the hearing and submitted Form 14's to the trial court. At the time of the hearing, father was living in New Jersey.
The trial court granted mother's Cross-Motion to Modify. It found that Missouri law applied and that application of the authorized support guidelines would be unjust or inappropriate. It awarded child support in the amount of $750 per month retroactive to February, 1990 to continue until son reached the age of twenty-two or completed his higher education, whichever first occurred. Father appeals from this order.
For his first point on appeal father contends that the trial court erred in applying Missouri law to extend his obligation to pay for son's support beyond age eighteen because Texas law terminates a parent's support obligation at age eighteen. He asserts that the full faith and credit clause of the United States Constitution prohibits Missouri from extending his support obligation past the age of eighteen.
Article IV, § 1 of the Constitution requires that
Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State to the Public Acts, Records, and judicial Proceedings of every other State. And the Congress may by general Laws prescribe the Manner in which such Acts, Records and Proceedings shall be proved, and the Effect thereof.
Pursuant to this section Congress enacted a statute providing that judgments "shall have the same full faith and credit in every court within the United States and its Territories and Possessions as they have by law or usage in the courts of such State, Territory or Possession from which they are taken." 28 U.S.C. § 1738 (1994).
In the context of child support orders, a court of one state may not modify a sister state's child support decree unless the rendering state also had the power to modify. Thompson v. Thompson, 645 S.W.2d 79, 84 (Mo.App.1982). 1 Future installments under a sister state's decree may be modified as long as such installments are subject to modification by the courts in the state rendering the decree. Id.; Reardon v. Reardon, 689 S.W.2d 127, 129 (Mo.App.1985) (). "[I]t is clear that the State of the forum has at least as much leeway to disregard the judgment, to qualify it, or to depart from it as does the State where it was rendered." Halvey, 330 U.S. at 615, 67 S.Ct. at 906, 91 L.Ed. at 1136.
Under Texas law the amount of a child support award may be modified where circumstances have materially and substantially changed. Tex.Fam.Code Ann. § 14.08 (West Supp.1995); Giangrasso v. Crosley, 840 S.W.2d 765, 769 (Tex.App.1992). However, Texas law does not provide for child support to extend beyond eighteen years of age unless the child is enrolled in a secondary school in a program leading to a high school...
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