STATE EX REL. KOSTER v. Walls

• Citation: 313 S.W.3d 143
• Decision Date: 29 June 2010
• Docket Number: No. WD 70845.,WD 70845.
• Parties: STATE ex rel. Chris KOSTER, Attorney General, Respondent, v. William E. WALLS, Appellant.
• Court: Court of Appeal of Missouri (US)

313 S.W.3d 143

STATE ex rel. Chris KOSTER, Attorney General, Respondent, v. William E. WALLS, Appellant.

No. WD 70845.

Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District.

May 18, 2010.

Motion for Rehearing and/or Transfer to Supreme Court Denied June 29, 2010.

William E. Walls, Licking, pro se.

Laura E. Elsbury, Esq., Jefferson City, MO, for respondent.

Before: LISA WHITE HARDWICK, P.J., and JAMES M. SMART, JR. and ALOK AHUJA, JJ.

ALOK AHUJA, Judge.

Appellant William E. Walls is currently incarcerated in the Department of Corrections. On February 3, 2004, the State filed a petition against Walls in the Circuit Court of Cole County, seeking reimbursement for the costs of his incarceration pursuant to the Missouri Incarceration Reimbursement Act, §§ 217.825 to 217.841, RSMo ("MIRA"). (Speaking generally, MIRA authorizes the State to seek reimbursement from a current or former inmate for all or part of the costs associated with the inmate's incarceration in a state correctional facility.) On June 29, 2004, the circuit court granted summary judgment in the State's favor. Walls appealed to this Court. We affirmed in a summary order pursuant to Rule 84.16(b). State ex rel. Nixon v. Walls, 167 S.W.3d 809 (Mo. App. W.D.2005).

On January 15, 2009, Walls filed a motion to set aside the circuit court's June 29, 2004 judgment under Supreme Court Rule 74.06(b), arguing that the judgment was "void." The trial court denied the motion on January 26, 2009. Walls appeals. We affirm.

Analysis

Walls argues that the 2004 judgment was void "in that the court that rendered the judgment lacked jurisdiction of the parties, or the subject matter, or acted in a manner inconsistent with due process of law ... because the Attorney General did not have good cause to believe that the reimbursement action would yield a certain recovery."

Walls moved to set aside the circuit court's 2004 judgment pursuant to Rule 74.06(b)(4), which provides in relevant part that "the court may relieve a party ... from a final judgment or order... if the judgment is void."¹

Litigants can request relief from a void judgment pursuant to Rule 74.06(b) at any time. A judgment is "void" under Rule 74.06 only if the court that rendered it lacked jurisdiction of the parties or the subject matter or acted in a manner inconsistent with due process of law. Hence, the circuit court could set aside its prior judgment only if, when it entered the judgment, it lacked personal or subject matter jurisdiction or acted in such a way as to deprive the movant of due process.

Franken v. Franken, 191 S.W.3d 700, 702 (Mo.App. W.D.2006) (citations and internal quotation marks omitted). "The concept of a `void' judgment is ... narrowly restricted"; in particular, "a judgment is not void simply because it is erroneous, or based on precedent later determined to be incorrect or unconstitutional." Baxi v. United Techs. Auto. Corp., 122 S.W.3d 92, 95-96 (Mo.App. E.D.2003).

Here, Walls argues that the circuit court lacked jurisdiction "because the attorney general, as a condition precedent to the filing of the reimbursement petition, did not have good cause to file the petition, in accordance with § 217.831.3."

The procedure that the Attorney General follows regarding a petition for reimbursement is set forth at section 217.831. Pursuant to this section, the Attorney General receives a report on an offender containing a completed asset disclosure form, together with all other information available on the offender's assets, and an estimate of the total cost of care for that offender. Section 217.831.1; see also section 217.829. The Attorney General, "may investigate or cause to be investigated" such report, including "seeking information from any source that may have relevant information concerning an offender's assets." Section 217.831.2. Upon completing the investigation, the Attorney General may file a petition seeking reimbursement against an offender if the Attorney General has

"good cause to believe that an offender... has sufficient assets to recover not less than ten percent of the estimated cost of care of the offender or ten percent of the estimated cost of care of the offender for two years, whichever is less, or has a stream of income sufficient to pay such amounts within a five-year period...."

Section 217.831.3. The good cause provision is a condition precedent that the Attorney General must satisfy before filing the petition. If the condition is not met, the Attorney General is without authority to proceed in seeking reimbursement.

State ex rel. Nixon v. Griffin, 291 S.W.3d 817, 820 (Mo.App. W.D.2009) (other citations omitted).

In State ex rel. Nixon v. Peterson, 253 S.W.3d 77 (Mo. banc 2008), the Supreme Court explained that

The purpose of this good cause requirement is not to provide a defense for offenders to a petition for reimbursement, but is intended as a cost-effective limitation on the attorney general's authority to file a MIRA action.... If the offender raises a factual issue as to the existence of sufficient assets, the offender is entitled to an evidentiary hearing on whether or not good cause exists.

Id. at 83-84 (citations omitted); see also, e.g., State ex rel. Nixon v. Hughes, 281 S.W.3d 902, 907-08, 910-12 (Mo.App. W.D. 2009); State ex rel. Nixon v. Smith, 280 S.W.3d 761, 766-69 (Mo.App. W.D.2009); State ex rel. Nixon v. Houston, 249 S.W.3d 210, 212 (Mo.App. W.D.2008). Because § 217.831.3 specifies only a "condition precedent" to the State's filing of a reimbursement action, "the State does not have to plead and prove good cause to recover." Houston, 249 S.W.3d at 214; State ex rel. Nixon v. Koonce, 173 S.W.3d 277, 284-85 (Mo.App. W.D.2005). Instead, the issue need only be resolved if the defendant challenges the existence of good cause; once the issue is raised, the burden falls on the State to establish that good cause in fact exists. See Griffin, 291 S.W.3d at 821; Smith, 280 S.W.3d at 766.

Thus, if Walls had raised the "good cause" issue prior to the entry of the 2004 judgment, the issue could have been litigated and decided by the trial court. But Walls' failure to raise the "good cause" issue prior to the entry of the 2004 judgment does not present the sort of "jurisdictional" defect or due process violation which could justify reopening the proceedings more than four years later. Indeed, in Peterson the Supreme Court expressly held that the existence of "good cause" was not a jurisdictional prerequisite to the grant of relief on a MIRA petition: "Although the Court agrees with Houston's conclusion that an offender may challenge the attorney general's finding of good cause, the Court rejects the assertion that this challenge is related to the jurisdiction of the court to hear the case. Rather, it is a condition precedent which must be met for the attorney general to proceed with the action." 253 S.W.3d at 83-84 n. 6.

Walls suggests that Peterson and Houston represented a change in the law, and that he should therefore be excused from his failure to challenge whether "good cause" existed under § 217.831.3 prior to the entry of the 2004 judgment. Even assuming that a change in the law could justify Rule 74.06(b) relief, however, § 217.831.3 has existed in its current form since 1995. Moreover, at least one inmate who was a defendant in a MIRA case at the same time as Walls challenged the existence of "good cause," including on appeal to this Court. Koonce, 173 S.W.3d 277. Walls essentially acknowledges that the law on which his current arguments are based existed at the time of the 2004 judgment, since he argues in his Reply Brief that he "is not seeking any retroactive application of...