Slidell v. Valentine

• Citation: 298 N.W.2d 599
• Decision Date: 12 November 1980
• Docket Number: No. 62938,62938
• Parties: Kemper SLIDELL, III, Appellant, v. Chareen VALENTINE and John Valentine, Appellees.
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Iowa

Page 599

298 N.W.2d 599

Kemper SLIDELL, III, Appellant, v. Chareen VALENTINE and John Valentine, Appellees.

No. 62938.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

Nov. 12, 1980.

Kemper and Chareen, William's parents, were married in Florida in June, 1966, and William was born the following year. The marriage failed, and a divorce was granted to Chareen in 1968. Custody of William was awarded to her. Chareen remarried and, with William and her new husband, moved to California. The second marriage also failed, and a decree of divorce was entered in December 1974. Chareen returned to Florida and married the appellee, John Valentine.

On June 19, 1975, while a resident of Florida, Chareen filed a petition for modification of the 1968 Florida divorce decree, praying for increased child support, improved insurance coverage and more definite visitation provisions. Kemper counter-petitioned, requesting custody of William, and in the alternative, specific periods of visitation. The Florida court subsequently ordered Chareen to produce William. Despite this order, John and Chareen moved to Story City, Iowa, and the Florida proceedings, in which Chareen sought improved economic provisions and Kemper sought custody, remained dormant from July, 1975 until May 25, 1978.

In April, 1978, Chareen initiated an action in Iowa under the Uniform Support of Dependents Law, chapter 252A, The Code 1977, praying for past due and future child support from Kemper. Pursuant to that act, the proceedings were transferred to Florida where Kemper resided. Kemper responded by counter-petitioning for custody of William and moving to consolidate the 1975 petition for custody and Chareen's URESA action. ¹ The Florida court granted Kemper's motion to consolidate. The 1975 modification application and the 1978 URESA petition were heard together on October 12, 1978. Chareen had filed an answer to Kemper's application but did not appear in person before the Florida court. Kemper and his present wife testified at the hearing. A recommendation of a Florida social investigator, who had interviewed William while the child was visiting his father in August, 1978, was presented in evidence. In its decree, the Florida court awarded custody to Kemper, denying Chareen's petition for support, and reserving jurisdiction to determine Chareen's visitation rights.

On October 13, Kemper sought to enforce the Florida modification order in Iowa through habeas corpus proceedings. (It is undisputed that habeas corpus proceedings are "custody proceedings" for purposes of implementing our Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act, chapter 598A, The Code 1979, which is discussed later. See Barcus v. Barcus, 278 N.W.2d 646, 647 (Iowa 1979); 9 U.L.A., Child Custody Jurisdiction Act § 2(3), Commissioners' Note at 120 (1979)). The district court refused to enforce the provisions of the Florida decree. Instead, it ordered custody to remain in Chareen and increased Kemper's child support obligation, reserving judgment on Kemper's rights of visitation. From this judgment, Kemper has appealed. Chareen has cross-appealed from that part of the order which held the Florida court's jurisdiction was not affected by the alleged improper consolidation of the modification and URESA actions.

I. Jurisdiction. Whether the United States Constitution, Article IV, section 1, requires full faith and credit to be accorded foreign custody decrees is still an open question, see, e. g., May v. Anderson, 345 U.S. 528, 73 S.Ct. 840, 97 L.Ed.2d 1221 (1953), and still presents difficult policy questions. In interstate disputes, the future certainty and predictability of custody orders afforded full faith and credit may run head-on into the strong motivation of courts to reassess the child's circumstances and act "in his best interest." A court willing to enforce a judgment for money, for example, might balk at the enforcement of custody provisions of a dissolution obtained in a foreign jurisdiction with little or no meaningful contact with the child. See Bodenheimer, The Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act: A Legislative Remedy for Children Caught in the Conflict of Laws, 22 Vand.L.Rev. 1207, 1228 (1969) (presence in state for "migratory divorce" insufficient, alone, to confer custody jurisdiction).

The Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act, enacted as 1977 Session, 67th G.A., ch. 139 (codified at ch. 598A, The Code 1979), seeks to strike a balance between the certainty and predictability accorded by full faith and credit and the courts' motivation to act in the best interests of the child. See Bodenheimer, Progress Under the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction, and Remaining Problems: Punitive Decrees, Joint Custody, and Excessive Modifications, 65 Cal.L.Rev. 978, 978-83 (1977). The uniform act establishes standards for determining which jurisdiction should proceed to decide the issue of custody. Its stated purposes are, in part, to

(a)ssure that litigation concerning the custody of a child takes place ordinarily in the state with which the child and the family have the closest connection and where significant evidence concerning the child's care, protection, training, and personal relationships is most readily available, and that courts of this state decline the exercise of jurisdiction when the child and the family have a closer connection with another state.

§ 598A.1(3), The Code. In the interstate context, the custody decision itself must be preceded by addressing the issue of subject-matter jurisdiction under the uniform act. We have considered the application of chapter 598A in three cases since its effective date in 1977. See In re Marriage of Mintle, 294 N.W.2d 564 (Iowa 1980); Pierce v. Pierce, 287 N.W.2d 879 (Iowa 1980); Barcus v. Barcus, 278 N.W.2d 646 (Iowa 1979). In all of these cases we have deferred to the jurisdiction of other states. Under the facts of this case, however, we conclude that Iowa is the appropriate state to exercise jurisdiction and, because our review of the evidence leaves us to resolve the issue in a matter inconsistent with Florida's order, we refuse to enforce its provisions.

Before we proceed to the issue of jurisdiction we should make it clear that it is subject-matter jurisdiction, not jurisdiction of the person, which we are discussing. See Smith v. Superior Court, 68 Cal.App.3d 457, 461, 137 Cal.Rptr. 348, 351 (1st Dist. 1977); Bodenheimer, 65 Cal.L.Rev. at 1000. Submission of a person to jurisdiction of the court, therefore, does not confer jurisdiction under the act. Id.

Whether an Iowa court has jurisdiction to modify an earlier out-of-state decree turns first upon whether that court has lost or declined its pre- existing jurisdiction. If it has, it must then be determined whether Iowa satisfies the jurisdictional requirements of the statute. See §§ 598A.13-.14, The Code; Pierce v. Pierce, 287 N.W.2d at 883; Bodenheimer, 22 Vand.L.Rev. at 1236. Foreign decrees are presumed to be valid, and in the present case Chareen bears the burden to prove the absence of jurisdiction. See Hetherington v. Roe, 239 Iowa 1354, 1359, 35 N.W.2d 14, 17 (1948).

A. Florida's jurisdiction. The Florida court entered the first custody order in 1968 when it entered a decree of divorce, then modified it in 1978 by granting custody to Kemper. Both orders thus preceded Iowa's involvement. Under section 598A.13, we are required to recognize and enforce Florida's modification order if that state had "assumed jurisdiction under statutory provisions substantially in accordance with (chapter 598A) ...." Whether Florida's court had assumed jurisdiction in accordance with our law requires an examination of section 598A.3, which provides:

1. A court of this state which is competent to decide child custody matters has jurisdiction to make a child-custody determination by initial or modification decree if:

a. This state is the home state of the child at the time of commencement of the proceeding, or had been the child's home state within six months before commencement of the proceeding and the child is absent from this state because of removal or retention by a person claiming custody or for other reasons, and a parent or person acting as parent continues to live in this state; or b. It is in the best interest of the child that a court of this state assume jurisdiction because the child and the child's parents, or the child and at least one contestant, have a significant connection with this state, and there is available in this state substantial evidence concerning the child's present or future care, protection, training, and personal relationships ....

Thus, Florida had jurisdiction to modify the custody provision if (a) it was William's "home state" at the time the proceeding was commenced or within the preceding six months, or (b) William's "best interest" required an assumption of jurisdiction because of his and at least one parent's "significant connection" with Florida.

We first address the "home state" basis of Florida's jurisdiction. "Home state" is defined in section 598A.2(5) as

the state in which the child, immediately preceding the time involved, lived with the child's parents, a parent, or a person acting as parent, for at least six consecutive months, and in the case of a child less than six months old the state in which the child lived from birth with any of the persons mentioned. Periods of temporary absence of any of the named persons are counted as part of the six-month or other period.

We have held that in determining whether an earlier court does "not now" have jurisdiction, the "now" refers to the time of the filing of the petition for modification. Pierce v. Pierce, 287 N.W.2d 879, 882 (Iowa 1980). The father contends that time was 1975, when his initial modification was filed and that, because William and both of his parents resided in Florida at that time, Florida was William's home state. The mother argues that the proceedings were commenced in 1978 when the father...