Oytan v. David–Oytan

• Decision Date: 05 November 2012
• Docket Number: No. 67254–1–I.,67254–1–I.
• Parties: Kudret OYTAN, Appellant, v. Margaret DAVID–OYTAN, Respondent.
• Court: Washington Court of Appeals

171 Wash.App. 781

288 P.3d 57

Kudret OYTAN, Appellant,

v.Margaret DAVID–OYTAN, Respondent.

No. 67254–1–I.

Court of Appeals of Washington,

Division 1.

Nov. 5, 2012.

Lynn Christine Tuttle, Attorney at Law, Mercer Island, WA, for Guardian Ad Litem.

Valerie A. Villacin, Catherine Wright Smith, Smith Goodfriend PS, Seattle, WA, for Appellant.

SCHINDLER, J.

¶ 1 Kudret Oytan contends the Washington State superior court did not have the authority to exercise personal jurisdiction over him in this dissolution because he was not “[l]iving in a marital relationship within this state” under the long-arm statute, RCW 4.28.185(1)(f). He contends that because he was not a resident, the limited contacts necessary for jurisdiction are not established, and jurisdiction lies only in Turkey. He also contends the court did not have jurisdiction because the long-arm statute service requirements were not met.

¶ 2 But the parties never lived in a marital relationship in Turkey, and neither the statute nor due process requires that a now-absent dissolution respondent lived full time in Washington during the marriage. Because the court's exercise of jurisdiction satisfied both the statute and due process, we affirm. We also affirm the court's refusal to vacate its temporary order for child support.

FACTS

¶ 3 Kudret Oytan and Margaret David–Oytan met in Ankara, Turkey in 1993. Kudret worked as a diplomatic officer in the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Margaret worked as a lawyer with the United Nations. In 1996, Kudret was posted to the Turkish Consulate in Los Angeles and on November 29, 1997, Kudret and Margaret were married in Maryland. Margaret and Kudret have dual United States and Turkish citizenship.

¶ 4 Kudret and Margaret lived in Los Angeles from 1997 until January 2007, and purchased a home and several investment real estate properties. Margaret worked as an immigration lawyer. Kudret testified that Margaret “did not want to accompany me in my job anywhere else in the world as it would hurt her career as a lawyer and insisted we stay in the USA together.” Their daughter A.O. was born on March 26, 1999.

¶ 5 In 1999, Kudret took a leave of absence from the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and enrolled at University of Southern California, earning a master's degree in business administration in 2000. He obtained a job as a product manager for an Internet startup company. After 2001, Kudret worked as a financial adviser with Morgan Stanley.

¶ 6 According to Kudret, he and Margaret “talked and agreed that maybe I should go back to my career in diplomatic service. Economy was still bad after a big financial meltdown and stable financial jobs were not around.” In 2004, Kudret returned to work for the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Ankara, Turkey. Margaret and A.O. continued to live in Los Angeles, and Kudret returned to Los Angeles as frequently as possible. Margaret testified that she and Kudret “maintained our relationship” while he worked in Turkey. Kudret said that “[d]espite being apart, we were a devoted couple.” In 2004, Kudret and Margaret purchased a home in Alexandria, Virginia near Margaret's family. They discussed the possibility of working in Washington, D.C. but continued to live in Los Angeles. In 2005, Margaret and A.O. spent some time with Kudret in Turkey.

¶ 7 In 2006, they decided to move out of Los Angeles. Margaret started looking for a new job. Kudret sent her information about a position as an immigration attorney at Microsoft in Washington and “encouraged [her] to apply for the position.” After Margaret's interview with Microsoft in October, Kudret talked to the recruiter and was the first to learn that Microsoft planned to offer her the job. Kudret made suggestions to Margaret about negotiating the terms of the employment agreement. They decided to move the family to Washington. Margaret testified:

Kudret and I extensively discussed whether we should make the move to Washington and we extensively discussed the job offer. We both wanted to move our family out of Los Angeles which we agreed was not a good place to raise a family. We jointly decided that I would accept the position at Microsoft Corporation, and we jointly decided to move our family to King County, Washington.

....

When I was offered the position at Microsoft, Kudret and I decided as a couple to make the move to Washington. We were committed to making our relationship work, despite the distance.

¶ 8 In January 2007, Kudret, Margaret, and A.O. drove from Los Angeles to Washington. They first lived in temporary Microsoft housing in Redmond. They enrolled A.O. in public elementary school. School records list Kudret as A.O.'s father, the head of the household, and the primary contact using the Redmond telephone number and local Redmond address. Kudret took A.O. to her first day of school on January 22, and continued to be actively involved in A.O.'s education and school activities. At the end of January, Kudret left to go back to work in Turkey but returned to Redmond at the beginning of June. In July, Kudret and Margaret went to Los Angeles to finish packing, after which Kudret stayed in Los Angeles to rent their house and supervise the move to Washington. When temporary housing ended, Kudret found a house for them to rent in Bellevue.

¶ 9 In August 2007, Kudret was posted to the Turkish Embassy in Minsk, Belarus. Kudret testified that “[l]iving together in Belarus was not even an option due to environmental cancer risk and non availability of international schools. US economy had financial meltdown and jobs were scarce.” Kudret's long separations from the family were difficult for A.O. In an e-mail dated February 14, 2007, Kudret insisted Margaret made “sure that [A.O.] understands we love each other and these separations are for business reasons.” Meanwhile, Kudret said that he “was trying to be posted to the U.S. or Canada so we could be close.”

¶ 10 In 2008, Kudret and Margaret sold real estate investment property in Los Angeles, including their house and condominium units they had developed with a partner. Kudret told Margaret to transfer $1.5 million from those sales to an account with Akbank in Turkey. Kudret started working with a real estate agent in Bellevue to find houses either for the family or for investment purposes.

¶ 11 In October 2008, Kudret contacted an agent about purchasing a franchise business. Kudret provided some financial information to the agent. “I have the cash and financial ability to complete a purchase if I find the right business at the right price. As you may see, the cash in the account was over $1500000 in only one account.”

¶ 12 In November, Kudret sent an e-mail to the agent asking him to focus on finding business opportunities in the Seattle area. Kudret states that he was “looking at businesses in the area” and saw one in Redmond, “which is close to where my family and I live.”

I was offline for sometime. Not because I lost interest in buying a franchise but about where my wife and I would like to be. I was in Washin [g]ton with my family and I talked with my wife and daughter... In this economic crisis my wife has [a] good job in Seattle as an attorne[y] and my daughter loves her school [sic]. We decided to stay in the area and [not] move untill [sic] the economy gets better. Thus I was looking at businesses in the area.¹

¶ 13 In 2009, Kudret was posted to the Turkish Ministry in Montreal, Canada, and was “able to see my wife and my daughter more often (a couple weeks a month).” Kudret's friend Bunyamin Ben Yazici testified that working “in different cities due to their careers and jobs ... has been very difficult” for Kudret and Margaret. Yazici testified that he talked to Kudret “multiple times” after Kudret was posted to Canada about finding a job in Washington.

[Kudret] expressed how difficult it was to be away from Meg and [A.O.] and that he was looking for a business opportunity in Washington in order to quit his current job. He asked me to keep an eye on any job opportunities for him. He also asked me to check with our mutual friend, Atilla Kilic, a business owner, for any business opportunities. Unfortunately, the current economic circumstances present difficult times to find readily available job opportunities.

¶ 14 In August 2009, Margaret sent an e-mail to Kudret about his request to transfer an additional $460,000 to Akbank. Margaret asked Kudret to confirm he would send the money in the Akbank account “back to the US.” In response, Kudret reassured Margaret that “[t]he money and the properties are commonly ours ... I do no[t] understand why you ask as I never claimed otherwise.” ² Kudret told Margaret that he wanted the money “in Turkey in a high interest bearing ac[c]ount with both our name[s] where both of us have a say.”

¶ 15 In May 2010, Margaret and A.O. went to Montreal to visit Kudret. On June 7, 2010, Margaret filed a petition for dissolution and “Petition for Order for Protection.” She sought a temporary order for child support and parenting plan, an order appointing a guardian ad litem (GAL), and an order restraining Kudret from withdrawing money from bank accounts in the United States and Turkey.

¶ 16 In her declaration, Margaret described a history of threats and domestic violence beginning in 2000. She states that in 2000, Kudret began drinking heavily. He slapped her in the face, and for the first time he threatened that if she ever left him, he would “get a gun, kill me and [A.O.] and then kill himself.” She stated that the most recent incident of physical abuse occurred in July 2008, “the evening before Kudret was returning to Europe.”

Kudret slapped me hard across the face. I started crying and tried to calm him down. We sat on the sofa. Kudret turned to me in anger, raised his leg and kicked me in the hip and thigh at least twice. I was in pain and my face was swollen and bruised. The bruises on my thighs took several weeks to heal. I have...