Chapman v. Parr

1974 OK 46, 521 P.2d 799
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedApril 16, 1974
Docket46901
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 1974 OK 46 (Chapman v. Parr) 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
Chapman v. Parr, 1974 OK 46, 521 P.2d 799 (Okla. 1974).

Opinions

SIMMS, Justice:

Petitioner, plaintiff in the trial court, asks this Court to assume original jurisdiction and issue a writ of prohibition against respondent judge, prohibiting the transfer, by judicial order, of a divorce case from Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, to Creek County, Oklahoma, under the doctrine of forum non conveniens.

Application to assume original jurisdiction granted. Writ of Prohibition Issued.

The decisive issue in these proceedings, succinctly put, is: “Should the doctrine of intrastate forum non conveniens be applied in Oklahoma to divorce actions ?”

The pleadings on file in this Court show the parties to the action in the trial court, husband and wife, have been married twenty-eight years, and have resided in [800]*800Creek County since the inception of the marriage. They have three grown children.

Petitioner/wife moved to Oklahoma County more than thirty days next preceding the filing of her petition for divorce in Oklahoma County.

Seven days after plaintiff/wife filed her action in Oklahoma County, and obtained service on defendant/husband in Creek County, defendant/husband filed his petition for divorce in Creek County and obtained service on the wife.

Both parties, with their attorneys, appeared before respondent judge for hearing on defendant/husband’s “Special Appearance, Plea to Jurisdiction, Objection to Venue, and Motion to Quash Summons.” The defendant/husband alleged:

“Plaintiff is not a bona fide resident of Oklahoma County, and was not for thirty days preceeding the filing of the petition. She was, in fact, a citizen and resident of Creek County. The defendant would also move the court to transfer this cause to the District Court of Creek County for the additional reason that that County would be a more convenient forum in which to try the case. The witnesses, records, evidence, and all other facts are available in Creek County and nowhere else; therefore, it would be impossible to have a fair and complete trial in Oklahoma County.”

Following a hearing, respondent judge made a judicial finding that petitioner./wife had established a bona fide residence in Oklahoma County more than thirty days next preceding the filing of her petition. There is no evidence before this Court to show that the respondent judge erred in his holding that petitioner had, in fact, established her residence in Oklahoma County for the time required by 12 O.S.1971, § 1272.1, and the bare allegations contained in the briefs are not sufficient to override the trial court’s finding of fact as to residency.

Defendant/husband then moved to transfer the case to Creek County pursuant to the doctrine of intrastate forum non con-veniens as enunciated in Gulf Oil v. Woodson, Okl., 505 P.2d 484 (1972); and as relied on in Simpson v. Woodson, Okl., 508 P.2d 1069 (1973); and, St. Louis-San Francisco Railway Co. v. District Court of Creek County, Okl., 512 P.2d 170 (1973).

The doctrine of intrastate forum non conveniens in the State of Oklahoma had its genesis in Gulf Oil v. Woodson, supra, wherein we said:

“Under the common law a court could refuse to exercise its jurisdiction where the case could be more appropriately and justly tried at another location. * * * We have a few specific venue statutes. However, we have found nothing in our Constitution and Statutes which deprives our courts of that privilege [and emphasis] where the action is transitory and there is a plurality of counties which have venue.” (emphasis added)

Under the rationale of Gulf Oil v. Woodson, supra, in order for the doctrine of intrastate forum non conveniens to be applicable to any action pending in any county of the state, two essential elements are necessary: (1) The action must be transitory; (2) There must be a plurality of counties which have venue.

Venue in divorce cases is governed by 12 O.S.1971, § 1272.1, which gives to plaintiff the right to commence the action in a county in which the plaintiff has been a resident for thirty (30) days immediately preceding the filing of the petition or in the county in which the defendant is a resident.

Transitory actions are founded on causes of personal character, and may be laid where the defendant is found. Local actions, as distinguished from transitory actions, are founded on causes that necessarily refer to locality, and must be laid in the county of the subject matter. First Nat. Bank of Seminole v. Henshaw, 169 Okl. 49, 35 P.2d 898, 901 (1934), quoting State ex rel. Logan v. Graper, 155 Tenn. 565, 4 S.W.2d 955 (1927).

[801]*801A clear reading of 12 O.S.1971, § 1272.1 does not cause the action to be brought “where the defendant is found,” but on the contrary, this section gives the plaintiff a right to bring the action for divorce where the plaintiff has been a resident for thirty days, or, in the alternative, in the county in which the defendant is a resident. The statute, by its very verbage, refers to one of two localities, rather than to where a defendant may be found.

Gulf, supra, recognizes the distinction between general ' venue statutes, upon which Gulf was written, and “a few specific venue statutes.” Can it be successfully argued that 12 O.S.1971, § 1272.1 is anything other than a specific venue statute?

If § 1272.1 is specific in nature, there cannot exist that “plurality of counties” which is a condition precedent to the invocation of intrastate forum non conveniens. Conceding that the word “plurality” may mean more than one, nevertheless, Gulf clearly indicates that the “plurality” feature necessary to invoke intrastate forum non conveniens was never intended to reach into the area of domestic relations, an area where the legislature has statutorily fixed venue with specificity.

Even a cursory reading of Gulf leads one to the inescapable conclusion that Gulf was intended to reach only “venue questions in transitory tort actions.” The author of Gulf, in addressing himself to the power of this Court to treat the subject of intrastate forum non conveniens, wrote at page 488 of SOS P.2d:

“In enacting the Code of Civil Procedure the Legislature specifically provided in Section 2 thereof, now 12 O.S. 1971, § 2, that the common law as modified by constitutional and statutory law, judicial decisions and the conditions and wants of the people, shall remain in force in aid of the general Statutes of Oklahoma.”

Herein, we neither aid a general statute of the State of Oklahoma because of the existence of a specific statute, nor do we modify common law by judicial decision, because in fact, divorce was not recognized at common law.

Oklahoma has never pointedly decided the question of whether a divorce action is “transitory” in nature, or “local”.

At first blush, decisions from our sister state of Kansas, as well as from the states of Florida and Delaware, seem to indicate that a divorce action is “transitory” in nature as opposed to being “local”. However, a close examination of the decisions from the above named states leads one to a contrary conclusion, i. e. that divorce actions in Oklahoma are “local”.

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Chapman v. Parr
1974 OK 46 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1974)

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Bluebook (online)
1974 OK 46, 521 P.2d 799, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chapman-v-parr-okla-1974.