Catlett v. Catlett

1966 OK 55, 412 P.2d 942
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedMarch 22, 1966
Docket40887
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 1966 OK 55 (Catlett v. Catlett) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Catlett v. Catlett, 1966 OK 55, 412 P.2d 942 (Okla. 1966).

Opinions

■ HALLEY, Chief Justice.

The parties will be referred to herein as-they appeared in the trial court.

On November 16, 1961, plaintiff Dorothy Ann Catlett, filed her petition in District Court of Oklahoma County against defendant, John Cross Catlett, to recover judgment for delinquent child support payments directed in a divorce decree entered in the Juvenile Court of Dallas County, Texas on September 7, 1955. A copy of the decree is attached to the petition of the plaintiff. In the decree plaintiff was awarded the custody of Kathleen Delia Catlett, 'age 9, fhe child of the plaintiff and defendant, and the' defendant was' ordered to pay the sum of $60.00 per week toward the support and maintenance of said minor child, the first payment to be made'on or before'August 13,' 1955, and a like sum of-$60.00 every Saturday thereafter until the ■ child reached the age of eighteen years.

The defendant paid threé or four of the' weekly $60.00 payments. He then' discussed-the matter by telephone with some-ohe connected with the child support office - -in-Dallas, Texas. He testified that the party-informed, him that if he paid ■ $150.0.0 a month, there would be no problem'-as -long as “it -was paid- through the court” and,.,not direct to plaintiff. The records» of ■ the Dallas. County . Child Support Department reflect, that- -defendant has made these» $150.00 payments each month up to the date of trial. . • ■ •

A jury was waived by both parties. The case was tried before the District Judge on July 10, 1963 and taken under advisement. On*October 18, 1963 the trial court entered a judgment finding “generally in favor of the defendant and against the plaintiff”. No specific findings of fact and conclusions of law were entered. Timely motion for new trial was filed and overruled. Plaintiff prosecutes this appeal. Parties will be referred to as they appear in the trial court. The cause is regularly before this Court for hearing and disposition on its merits.

- This- Court -has held that full faith and cr.edit. must be accorded to.the .decree of.the. [944]*944Texas court. Clark v. Clark, Okl., 380 P.2d 241; Clester v. Heidt’s Estate, Okl., 353 P.2d 699. Defendant requests that we reexamine this question giving consideration to the- Texas statutes and several Texas decisions. Defendant cites Article 4639-a of the Texas Civil Statutes, Vernon’s Civil Stat, and Texas cases as follows: Blunk v. Ivens, Tex.Civ.App., 330 S.W.2d 247; Johns v. Johns, Tex.Civ.App., 172 S.W.2d 770; Ex Parte Roberts, 139 Tex. 644, 165 S.W.2d 83; and Grubbs v. Grubbs, Tex.Civ.App., 164 S.W.2d 216.

Article 4639-a of the Texas Civil Statutes and the cases cited outline the procedure to be followed in modifying a divorce decree because of change of conditions. The question' of the full -faith and credit to be accorded to a divorce decree of a foreign state is not involved.

These sames cases with the exception of Blunk v. Ivens, supra, were presented to the Oklahoma Court in Clark v. Clark, supra, and held to be inapplicable.

The Texas Court in several cases holds that'the provisions of a divorce decree entered' in a foreign state are entitled to full faith' and' credit in the Texas courts as to ill- past due payments for child support.

In Gard v. Gard, 150 Tex. 347, 241 S.W.2d 618, the Supreme Court of Texas, construing an Idaho divorce decree, held fhát matured payments for child support became “absolute, vested and protected by the full faith and credit clause of the federal constitution”.

In Stout v. Stout, Tex.Civ.App., 214 S.W.2d 891, error refused, the Court held that past due installments on a Louisiana judgment for alimony and child support were final and entitled to full faith and credit in a Texas action on the judgment, notwithstanding the Louisiana statute authorized the annulment or amendment of judgments for alimony.

In Caples v. Caples (CCA 5), 47 F.2d 225, which originated in the Western District of Texas, the Circuit Court held that the accrued payments on an alimony judgment of a California court were final and entitled to full faith and credit by the Texas Court in an action to enforce the California judgment.

In Texas allowances for child support are binding and final until changed by the court. In the case of Ex Parte Padfield, 154 Tex. 253, 276 S.W.2d 247, the Supreme Court of Texas said:

“In this state a decree of divorce including child support becomes final and binding. The child support is certain and fixed until changed by the court after application, a hearing and proof of changed conditions.”

In the instant case the defendant has at no time filed an application in the Texas Court seeking to modify or change the payments for child support.

This troublesome question has been before the Oklahoma Court for more than fifty years. In 1910 in Bleuer v. Bleuer, 27 Okl. 25, 110 P. 736, this Court held that a divórce decree entered in the State of Illinois providing for the payment of child support in monthly installments subject to modification, lacked finality and would not be accorded full faith and credit by the Oklahoma courts.

At the time Bleuer v. Bleuer, supra, was decided, the Court did not have before it the landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in Sistare v. Sistare, 218 U.S. 1, 30 S.Ct. 682, 54 L.Ed. 905, 28 L.R.A.,N.S., 1068, wherein the Court held the courts of Connecticut should give full faith and credit to a New York divorce decree in enforcing the payment of past due and unpaid installments of alimony “although the modes of procedure to enforce the collection- may not be the same in both states”.

In 1911, this Court in Campbell v. Campbell, 28 Okl. 838, 115 P. 1111, declined to follow Bleuer v. Bleuer, supra, and approved the case of Sistare v. Sistare, supra. The Court held that the Oklahoma courts should give full faith and credit to a divorce decree entered in Missouri in enforcing the payment of “overdue and unpaid installments” of alimony.

[945]*945In Hastings v. Hastings, Okl., 274 P.2d 540, decided in 1954, this Court said:

“A Nevada judgment for divorce and for continuing monthly payments to wife from husband, valid in Nevada, is here entitled to full faith and credit as a final judgment for the monthly sums which have accrued and are due and payable thereunder.”

This question was before this Court in 1960 in Clester v. Heidt’s Estate, Okl., 353 P.2d 699, involving a suit to enforce the payment of unpaid child support benefits provided for in an Indiana divorce decree and again in 1963 in Clark v. Clark, Okl., 380 P.2d 241, a suit brought to recover past due payments for child support provided for in a Texas divorce decree. In each of these cases this Court said:

“A foreign divorce decree providing for periodical payments of child support is entitled to full faith and credit in this State as to matured, unpaid child support installments.”

Sistare v. Sistare, supra, has been approved by the courts of the last resort of many states. A check by the use of “Shepard’s . Citations” reflects its approval by more than a dozen jurisdictions.

Among the jurisdictions citing with approval the case of Sistare v.

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1966 OK 55, 412 P.2d 942, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/catlett-v-catlett-okla-1966.