Burchett v. Burchett

572 S.W.2d 494, 1978 Mo. App. LEXIS 2300
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedOctober 2, 1978
DocketKCD 29509, 29526
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 572 S.W.2d 494 (Burchett v. Burchett) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Burchett v. Burchett, 572 S.W.2d 494, 1978 Mo. App. LEXIS 2300 (Mo. Ct. App. 1978).

Opinion

SHANGLER, Presiding Judge.

These appeals are from a judgment which vacated a prior default judgment to modify a custody award. The order of modification rested on service by publication which issued on the affidavit of the husband that the wife was not amenable to personal service within the state because she had absented herself from her usual place of abode and her address was otherwise unknown to him. The judgment by default was vacated on the motion of the wife, understood by the court as a writ of coram nobis, and rests on the determination that the husband made no such diligent effort to locate and notify the wife of the pending action. The judgment also awards tempo *497 rary custody of the children to the father pending adjudication of a separate motion to change custody and also orders the husband to pay the wife attorney fees and suit money incidental to the proceeding to vacate the default judgment.

The wife appeals from the judgment which grants the husband temporary custody of the children. The husband cross-appeals from the vacation of the prior judgment and from the order for payment of attorney fees.

The husband contests the vacation of the default judgment on the premise that a proceeding to modify custody merely exercises the continued jurisdiction the court acquired over the parties and the res by virtue of the original decree. He argues that the wife engaged that jurisdiction by her petition for divorce some years earlier and, by his perceptions, “the court has at all times had personal jurisdiction over her.” This contention suggests that the formal statutory mode of service of process was superfluous to submit the wife to the judgment of the court and so, in any event, whatever insufficiency attended the publication notice could not affect the validity of the adjudication entered.

It is properly stated that a final judgment in divorce or dissolution of marriage does not divest a court of continued jurisdiction to modify that decree as to maintenance, support or custody. Sections 452.370 and 452.410, RSMo Supp. 1974; Greene v. Greene, 368 S.W.2d 426, 428[1] (Mo.1963). The jurisdiction retained by the court which renders a domestic relations decree, however, although exclusive as to such matters, operates only on changed circumstances. Hayes v. Hayes, 363 Mo. 583, 252 S.W.2d 323, 328[4] (1952). A motion to modify a decree of custody, therefore, adjudicates new rights on new evidence and results in a new judgment from which a party aggrieved may appeal. Olson v. Olson, 184 S.W.2d 768, 772[4, 5] (Mo.App. 1945); North v. North, 389 Mo. 1226, 100 S.W.2d 582, 587[13—15] (1936). Thus, although a motion to modify a decree of custody continues from the original action, such a petition constitutes an independent proceeding so that notice to the party to be adversely affected is indispensible to valid judgment. Greene v. Greece, supra, l.c. 428[1-7]; Williamson v. Williamson, 331 S.W.2d 140, 142[1—2] (Mo.App.1960); In re Lipschitz, 466 S.W.2d 183, 185[1-3] (Mo.App.1971); Burgess v. Burgess, 239 Mo.App. 390, 190 S.W.2d 282, 284[1, 2] (1945).

The husband contends that only two days before the action was brought he personally told the wife he intended then to initiate proceedings to modify the custody award as to the children [whom he had taken into possession] so there was no duty for him to give further notice of what she already knew. Legal notice of the commencement of suit, however, means more than actual notice of the event. In re Marriage of Bradford, 557 S.W.2d 720, 729[16] (Mo.App.1977). Rather, the law requires that a party subject to adverse judgment shall be formally served by an officer of the court with process and statement of the claim [except for in cases of publication] and that formal proof of service be made part of the record of the proceedings. Rule 54. This ceremony accomplishes the purposes both of due process for notice and of the statute that the fact of notice shall not be subject to dispute. Williamson v. Williamson, 331 S.W.2d 140, 144[6] (Mo.App. 960); Miners’ Bank v. Kingston, 204 Mo. 687, 103 S.W. 27, 31 (1907).

The law treats a motion to modify a domestic relations decree not as an original action, however, but as a subsequent pleading within the terms of Rule 43.01(a) and predecessor § 506.100 so that summons in the usual form need not issue or be served. In re Lipschitz, 466 S.W.2d 183, 185[1-3] (Mo.App.1971). 1 A reasonable no *498 tice sufficient to meet the requirements of due process nevertheless must be given to the party adversely affected — and on this issue the proponent of the motion has the burden to prove that the pleading and the time for hearing were imparted to the adversary. Greene v. Greene, 368 S.W.2d 426, 428[8, 9] (Mo.1963). And where the notice is attempted upon an attorney in the cause, the burden falls on the proponent to show that the relationship of attorney and client subsisted at the time of service. Burgess v. Burgess, supra, 190 S.W.2d, l.c. 284[3—4]. In this case, one notice was attempted by service of the motion papers upon Hammett, counsel for the wife at the original proceedings, but his affidavit disclaimed that he still represented her. The subsequent word of mouth that the father would seek modification of the custody award imparted to the wife some two days before institution of proceedings was equally ineffective as the legal notice expected by due process. Burgess v. Burgess, supra, l.c. 284[3—4]; Greene v. Greene, supra, l.c. 428; In re Marriage of Bradford, supra, l.c. 729[16]. The validity of the judgment rests, if at all, on the notice imparted by the service by publication ordered by the court under Rule 54.17 on the affidavit of the husband that the wife was not amenable to service within the state.

A judgment for the custody of children acts in rem, or at least quasi in rem, and may issue on service of process by publication. Rules 54.12 and 54.17; In re Marriage of Breen, 560 S.W.2d 358, 361[1,2] (Mo.App.1977). Where the children are physically before the forum their custody status is a res within the power of the court to adjudicate. Kennedy v. Carman, 471 S.W.2d 275, 288[4] (Mo.App.1971).

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Bluebook (online)
572 S.W.2d 494, 1978 Mo. App. LEXIS 2300, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/burchett-v-burchett-moctapp-1978.