Castle v. Castle

642 S.W.2d 709, 1982 Mo. App. LEXIS 3345
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedNovember 23, 1982
DocketNo. WD 32789
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 642 S.W.2d 709 (Castle v. Castle) 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
Castle v. Castle, 642 S.W.2d 709, 1982 Mo. App. LEXIS 3345 (Mo. Ct. App. 1982).

Opinion

LOWENSTEIN, Judge.

This appeal is from an order and final judgment of the Circuit Court of Jackson County sustaining the registration of a Kansas judgment by respondent Sherry K. Castle (Pollock).

The respondent was granted a divorce from appellant, Craig N. Castle on November 24, 1964, in Olathe, Kansas, custody of the minor child was awarded to respondent and appellant was ordered to pay the sum of Fifteen ($15.00) Dollars per week as child support. It is undisputed that the appellant paid a total of Seven Hundred Thirty-Five ($735.00) Dollars as child support from November 24, 1964 through June 11, 1965. The June 11, 1965 payment was the last payment made by appellant to respondent. In the almost fourteen years following this last payment respondent made no effort to modify, execute upon nor revive the child support order. On December 11, 1979 respondent filed a motion in Kansas to reduce the delinquent payments to a judgment. Appellant, then a Missouri resident, received notice of the hearing on this matter but failed to appear. This motion culminated in an order dated January 3, 1980 in which the Judge of the District Court, Court No. 7, Johnson County, Kansas sustained respondent’s motion, with appellant in default, to reduce delinquent payments to a judgment of Ten Thousand Five Hundred Sixty ($10,560.00) Dollars.

On August 20, 1980 respondent filed a Petition for Registration of Foreign Judgment in Jackson County, Missouri, pursuant to Section 511.760, RSMo. (1978), in which Missouri adopted the Uniform Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Law. See also Rule 74.79. Appellant filed a Motion to Quash Registration of Foreign Judgment and Suggestions in Support. Respondent filed Suggestions in Opposition and a hearing was held on the matter initially resulting in the court sustaining appellant’s Motion to Quash. Respondent then filed a Motion to Vacate and Set Aside the Order Quashing Registration of Foreign Judgment and for an order making the registered judgment a final judgment. After a hearing the court entered its Order setting aside and vacating the earlier order and further ordered that respondent’s Kansas judgment dated January 3, 1980, be duly registered in the Circuit Court of Jackson County and become a final judgment against the appellant in the sum of Ten Thousand Five Hundred ($10,500.00) Dollars.1

[712]*712Appellant on appeal would have this court set aside or modify the registered foreign judgment due to alleged errors made in the Kansas proceeding and because of a difference in Kansas and Missouri’s statutes of limitations. The judgment of the trial court is affirmed.

The controlling law of Missouri as to registration of foreign judgments and the full faith and credit they must be accorded is clearly set forth by this court in Metropolitan Lumber Co. v. Dodge, 567 S.W.2d 729, 731 (Mo.App.1978) which states:

“By reason of the positive command of Art. IV, § 1, of the United States Constitution, full faith and credit must be given the judgment of a sister state in an action brought thereon in this state unless, with respect thereto, there was (1) a lack of jurisdiction over the subject matter, (2) failure to give due notice, or (3) fraud in the procurement or concoction of the judgment .... In view of the tightly circumscribed grounds legally recognized as justification for refusing to give full faith and credit to the judgment of a sister state, it is forbidden in actions brought thereon in this state to inquire into the merits of the cause of action upon which the judgment is predicated, the logic or consistency of the decision underlying the judgment, and the validity of the legal principles upon which the judgment is based.” (emphasis added) See also Gibson v. Epps, 352 S.W.2d 45, 47 (Mo.App.1961).

Appellant fails to raise any of the above impediments ((1) lack of jurisdiction over subject matter, (2) failure to give notice, (3) fraud in procurement or concoction of the judgment) to full faith and credit as grounds for setting aside the registration of the Kansas judgment under § 511.760.

Appellant’s first point on appeal contends that the trial court erred in setting aside and vacating its’ February 18, 1981 order quashing the registration of foreign judgment and in entering a final judgment on behalf of respondent as the Kansas judgment was barred by § 516.350 RSMo. (1978). Section 516.350 presumes any debt or judgment to be paid and satisfied after the expiration of ten years from the date of original rendition, if that debt or judgment has not been revived or payment made on the record during the ten year period. This point is ruled against him.

The ten year statute of limitation of § 516.350 does not apply to the judgment registered by respondent, as that judgment of January 3, 1980 was less than a year old when registered. Appellant’s reliance on the case of Swan v. Shelton, 469 S.W.2d 943 (Mo.App.1971) is misplaced. In Swan the court refused to permit the registration in 1970 of a child support judgment entered by an Illinois court in 1957, because more than [713]*713ten years had elapsed between the dates of entry and registration. In the instant case the Kansas court attempted to liquidate and reduce to a current lump sum an amount of delinquent child support payments then due. This was not the case in Swan and is the reason that the ten year statute and Swan are not applicable to the case at bar.

Appellant’s second point contends that the trial court erred in accepting the January 3, 1980 Kansas action as a new judgment to be registered in the State of Missouri because it was merely an accounting service as to how much child support is owed due to prior judgments and is not required by Kansas law. This point is ruled against him.

In Riney v. Riney, 205 Kan. 671, 473 P.2d 77, 83 (1970) (cited by both appellant and respondent), the Supreme Court of Kansas stated:

“In cases of this nature it has been the consistent attitude of this court over a long period of years that where there is no special reason for strict formality of procedure the existence of irregularities therein does not render void the judicial process by which parties endeavor to maintain their rights. (Korber v. Willis, 127 Kan. 587, 274 P. 239).
It is apparent the trial court is under no obligation to ascertain the total amount of past due installments under a divorce decree and render another judgment if such installments have not become dormant. (Haynes v. Haynes, 168 Kan. 219, 212 P.2d 312; and Ortiz v. Ortiz, 180 Kan. 334, 304 P.2d 490.) But this does not mean the trial judge cannot do so if he wishes, and having done so, unless there appears to be a special reason to declare the court’s action void, it will not be declared void. (See Korber v. Willis, supra.)”

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Bluebook (online)
642 S.W.2d 709, 1982 Mo. App. LEXIS 3345, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/castle-v-castle-moctapp-1982.