Martin v. Phillips

• Decision Date: 10 April 2015
• Docket Number: 110,714.
• Citation: 347 P.3d 1033,51 Kan.App.2d 393
• Parties: Kimbra (Phillips) MARTIN, Appellee, v. Daniel PHILLIPS, Appellant.
• Court: Kansas Court of Appeals

51 Kan.App.2d 393

347 P.3d 1033

Kimbra (Phillips) MARTIN, Appellee

v.Daniel PHILLIPS, Appellant.

110,714.

Court of Appeals of Kansas.

April 10, 2015.

Allison Kort and Scott H. Kreamer, of Hubbard, Ruzicka, Kreamer & Kincaid L.C., of Olathe, for appellant.

Kimbra L. Martin, appellee pro se.

Before HILL, P.J., GREEN and LEBEN, JJ.

Opinion

LEBEN, J.

Daniel Phillips appeals the district court's enforcement of child-support orders against him based on a claim that the orders arose out of Washington state and that the claims should no longer be collectible under a 10–year Washington limitation period. But the applicable statute in both Kansas and Washington provides that in an interstate proceeding for arrearages—or overdue payments —the longer limitation period between the forum state (here, Kansas) and the other state shall apply. The district court properly found that this was a proceeding for arrearages and applied the longer Kansas limitation period. We therefore affirm the district court's judgment.

Factual and Procedural Background

The parties were divorced in 1989 in Johnson County, Kansas, but their litigation has taken them to the state courts of Kansas, Missouri, and Washington, as well as to federal court. Four years ago, our court appropriately described the history of this case as “long and tortuous.” In re Marriage of Phillips, No. 102,107, ––– Kan.App.2d ––––, 2010 WL 3731572, at *1 (Kan.App.2010) (unpublished opinion), rev. denied 291 Kan. 912 (2011). We will review only as much of the background as may bear on issues before us in the present appeal.

Daniel Phillips and Kimbra Martin had one child, and Daniel was ordered to pay child support. Shortly after the divorce, Daniel moved to the Missouri side of the Kansas City metropolitan area, although he later returned to Kansas. Martin and the child first moved to New Jersey and then, in 1992, to Washington.

Within a few months of the divorce, Daniel fell behind on child-support payments. His liability for further child support ended when the child turned 18 on August 23, 2001, but disputes have remained about past-due child support, interest, attorney fees, and medical expenses that he was ordered by a court to pay.

Our court heard an appeal in 2005 in which Daniel opposed the registration in Kansas of a 2003 Washington order enforcing the original 1993 Kansas order for child support. The Washington order, titled “Order on Show Cause Re Contempt/Judgment,” found that Daniel had failed to pay child support in the amount of $36,096 from March 15, 1994, to August 23, 2001; had failed to pay $17,266.42 in interest on that support from March 15, 1994, to March 15, 2003; and had failed to reimburse Kimbra $12,338 in medical expenses from December 9, 1993, to December 31, 2000.

In that appeal, our court considered whether the Washington order was appropriately registered in Kansas. We held that the Washington order was an enforcement order of the original Kansas child-support order and thus was not required to be registered. In re Marriage of Phillips, No. 91,917, ––– Kan.App.2d ––––, 2005 WL 475240, at *3–4 (Kan.App.2005) (unpublished opinion). The Washington Court of Appeals also noted that the order was a Washington enforcement order of a Kansas support order. It did so after acknowledging that a Washington court that had entered a previous modification order had lacked jurisdiction, an issue that had been determined by the Missouri Supreme Court in Phillips v. Fallen, 6 S.W.3d 862 (Mo. 1999). In re Marriage of Owen, 126 Wash.App. 487, 491–95, 108 P.3d 824 (2005). The Washington Court of Appeals remanded the case back to the Washington district court for a determination on attorney fees and other matters. In re Marriage of Owen, 126 Wash.App. at 504, 108 P.3d 824.

The Washington district court, following remand, reissued the enforcement order in 2006 for interest on child support, attorney fees and interest on those, as well as unpaid medical costs and interest on those. The Washington enforcement order notes that the principal amount of unpaid child support, $36,096, was satisfied through a United States district court case. While the record in this appeal does not indicate the basis of that case, both parties agree that Phillips paid the principal after he was convicted for misdemeanor failure to pay support under federal law. See 18 U.S.C. § 228 (2012). The Washington enforcement order for $65,836.10 in unpaid interest, attorney fees, and medical costs was registered in Johnson County, Kansas, on July 18, 2008. The enforceability of that order is the focus of this appeal.

The Kansas district court initially ruled that a Washington statute of limitations would apply to this order. That ruling, filed in August 2008, came less than 10 years after the child's 18th birthday (which occurred in August 2011), and Washington provides a 10–year period after the child's 18th birthday to collect unpaid child support. See Wash. Rev.Code § 6.17.020(2). Daniel unsuccessfully appealed the district court's ruling on issues generally unrelated to the current appeal. See In re Marriage of Phillips, 2010 WL 3731572, at *1.

On October 5, 2011, Daniel filed a motion arguing that the judgments against him had gone dormant under Washington law, preventing further collection efforts, because more than 10 years had passed since the child turned 18. The district court initially ruled that the judgment for attorney fees, unpaid medical expenses, and interest on those amounts had gone dormant under Washington law. The only exception in the original ruling was that the court held that the interest on child support owed could still be collected since it qualified as arrearages under K.S.A.2014 Supp. 23–36,604(b) and was thus governed by the Kansas statute of limitations and dormancy statute. Under the Kansas dormancy statute, K.S.A.2014 Supp. 60–2403, child-support judgments not void as of July 1, 2007, never become dormant.

But Kimbra filed for reconsideration, and the district court reversed course. In its order on reconsideration, the district court found that all of the sums Kimbra requested—not just the interest on child support—were arrearages governed by Kansas statutes. The district court concluded that under the language of K.S.A.2014 Supp. 60–2403, “this judgment for arrearages will never become dormant.”

Daniel has now appealed to this court.

Analysis

Daniel recognizes that his legal arguments on appeal must be decided with reference to the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act (UIFSA), which applies generally to interstate efforts to enforce support orders. Because this presents an issue of statutory interpretation, we review this issue independently, without any required deference to the district court. Scott v. Hughes, 294 Kan. 403, 412, 275 P.3d 890 (2012).

Daniel seeks to apply a Washington statute of limitations under which collection efforts may not continue on a child-support judgment more than 10 years after the child's 18th birthday. Wash. Rev.Code § 6.17.020(2). Kimbra seeks to apply Kansas law, which was amended in 2007 to provide that child-support judgments that were still collectible as of July 1, 2007, never become dormant. K.S.A.2014 Supp. 60–2403(b). We must decide which law applies.

To do so, we must consider the UIFSA choice-of-law provision, K.S.A.2014 Supp. 23–36,604. This provision makes two basic points: (1) the law of the issuing state governs the “duration” of “current payments” and “ other obligations of support”; and (2) in any proceeding to collect “ arrearages,” the statute of limitations of this state or the issuing state, whichever is longer, applies:

“(a) The law of the issuing state governs the nature, extent, amount and duration of current payments and other obligations of support and the payment of arrearages under the order.

“(b) In a proceeding for arrearages, the statute of limitation under the laws of this state or of the issuing state, whichever is longer, applies.” K.S.A.2014 Supp. 23–36,604.

Under this provision, if this is “a proceeding for arrearages,” then Kimbra may still collect the amounts due. In a proceeding for arrearages, the longer limitation period—whether of the issuing state or Kansas—applies. Daniel recognizes that child-support judgments in effect as of July 2007 will never become dormant and, thus, will always be collectible through court proceedings if the Kansas limitation period applies. See K.S.A.2014 Supp. 60–2403(b). So we will first consider whether this is a proceeding for arrearages.

Daniel argues that it isn't. He notes that UIFSA doesn't define the term “arrearage.” That's true, but UIFSA does define the term “[s]upport order,” a term central to UIFSA, which is used specifically to register and enforce support orders. See K.S.A.2014 Supp. 23–36,603.

One of UIFSA's definitional provisions, K.S.A.2014 Supp. 23–36,101(u), broadly defines “support order” to “mean[ ] a judgment, decree or order ... for the benefit of a child ... which provides for monetary support, health care, arrearages or reimbursement, and may include related costs and fees, interest, income withholding, attorney fees and other relief. ” (Emphasis added.) So support orders under UIFSA include not only the underlying child support but also health-care expenses ordered reimbursed, interest, attorney fees, and “other relief.” All of the amounts at issue in this case—interest, attorney fees, and medical—expense reimbursements—are covered under the term “support order.” We would therefore expect them to be part of a UIFSA “ proceeding for arrearages”: UIFSA is the means of enforcing support orders, and support orders include all of these items.

The language of the UIFSA choice-of-law provision confirms this reading. Subsection (a) of K.S.A.2014 Supp. 23–36,604 refers both to “current payments and other...