In re the Marriage of: Kelli Benjamin and Greg Benjamin

CourtCourt of Appeals of Washington
DecidedOctober 5, 2017
Docket34799-1
StatusUnpublished

This text of In re the Marriage of: Kelli Benjamin and Greg Benjamin (In re the Marriage of: Kelli Benjamin and Greg Benjamin) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Washington primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re the Marriage of: Kelli Benjamin and Greg Benjamin, (Wash. Ct. App. 2017).

Opinion

FILED OCTOBER 5, 2017 In the Office of the Clerk of Court WA State Court of Appeals, Division III

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON DIVISION THREE

IN THE MATTER OF THE MARRIAGE ) No. 34799-1-111 OF ) ) KELLI BENJAMIN, ) I ) I l Respondent, ) UNPUBLISHED OPINION )

I and

GREG BENJAMIN, ) ) ) ) Appellant. )

FEARING, C.J. - Greg Benjamin appeals from the trial court's denial of his

motion to vacate a dissolution decree and parenting plan entered in 2009. We affirm.

PROCEDURE

Only the facts transpiring after litigation began bear relevance to this appeal. On

September 3, 2008, Kelli Benjamin petitioned for dissolution of her marriage to Greg

Benjamin and filed a proposed parenting plan for the care of the couple's six-year-old

daughter. On the same day, Kelli requested an ex parte restraining order against Greg.

Kelli alleged she feared Greg's presence due to his history of violence, pending assault

charges, and verbal threats. The court granted the restraining order and scheduled a show No. 34799-1-111 In re Marriage of Benjamin

cause hearing for September 16, 2008. The court continued the hearing twice because

Kelli was unable to serve Greg.

On October 10, 2008, Kelli Benjamin sought a court order permitting service of

Greg Benjamin by mail at his last known address on East 8th Avenue, in Spokane. She

requested service by mail because she could not locate Greg within Washington State and

because he concealed himself to avoid service of process. In support of her application,

Kelli filed a sheriffs return of service, wherein Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich

certified that, after three attempts, he was unable to serve Greg at the 8th Avenue address.

The trial court granted Kelli's request. The court's order provided that Kelli must

complete a return of service form to confirm the mailing. Our record lacks any return of

service.

The trial court continued a hearing on Kelli Benjamin's petition for dissolution of

marriage and proposed parenting plan three more times because Greg Benjamin remained

unserved. Based on both parties' failure to respond to requests by the court regarding the

status of the pending dissolution case, the court ordered Kelli and Greg Benjamin to

appear on January 22, 2009 and show cause why the case should not be dismissed. The

court dismissed the case on January 23, 2009. The order of dismissal confirmed the court

mailed a copy of the order to Kelli. The order did not confirm its mailing to Greg.

On March 13, 2009, Kelli Benjamin moved the court to vacate its dismissal. The

court found good cause to grant her motion and vacated the dismissal.

2 No. 34799-1-111 In re Marriage of Benjamin

On May 7, 2009, Kelli Benjamin asked the court for an order allowing service by

publication. She again averred that she could not find Greg Benjamin in this state and he

concealed himself to avoid service of summons. Kelli declared that she "tried to serve

[Greg] by paying police, certified mail and had other copies of divorce made for others to

serve [him] and cannot locate him." Clerk's Papers (CP) at 71. She also certified that

she mailed a copy of the summons in an envelope addressed to Greg's residence. Kelli

did not disclose the identities of those individuals who attempted service on Greg. The

court granted Kelli's motion to publish service.

Kelli served Greg by publication in the Liberty Lake Splash on six consecutive

weeks from May 14, 2009 through June 18, 2009. The Liberty Lake Splash is a weekly

newspaper with general circulation in Liberty Lake and growing city's environs in

Spokane County. In May 2001, Spokane County approved the Liberty Lake Splash as a

legal newspaper. Kelli submitted to the court proof of service by publication in the form

of a declaration from Joshua Johnson, the publisher of the Liberty Lake Splash.

On August 7, 2009, Kelli Benjamin filed a motion for default based on Greg

Benjamin's failure to appear. The trial court issued an order of default on the same day.

On August 27, 2009, the court entered a decree of dissolution. The decree

continued the restraining order against Greg and prohibited him from entering his

daughter's home or school or coming within two city blocks of her. On August 27, the

trial court also entered Kelli's proposed parenting plan. The plan placed the daughter

3 No. 34799-1-111 In re Marriage of Benjamin

with Kelli and restricted Greg's residential time with the daughter based on a history of

acts of domestic violence. The parenting plan recorded that Greg's conduct might

adversely affect his daughter because of domestic abuse that created the danger of serious

damage to the child's psychological development. The parenting plan, however, granted

Greg residential time with his daughter every other Thanksgiving, every Christmas Eve,

every Father's Day, and every other one of her birthdays.

On October 10, 2009, Kelli Benjamin filed a petition to extend the domestic

violence protection order. The Spokane Police Department attempted to serve Greg

Benjamin with the petition on four occasions to no avail. A police officer attested that

"[Greg's] truck was at the address every time I went there. The one time someone came

to the door they were uncooperative. I sat at the address for 1 Yi hours with no luck." CP

at 244. The trial court ordered that Kelli serve the extension request by mail. The court

entered three ex parte orders for renewal of the order due to a lack of service on Greg.

Then on November 5, 2009, the trial court dismissed Kelli's petition for renewal because

Kelli did not attend court that day.

On October 13, 2015, six years after entry of the dissolution decree and parenting

plan, Greg Benjamin filed a petition to modify the parenting plan. On December 8, 2015,

the trial court found adequate cause for the petition and, as of June 29, 2016, trial was

pending. With his petition, Greg averred that he had visited twice a week with his

daughter at his home for eight to nine years.

4 No. 34799-1-III In re Marriage of Benjamin

On May 23, 2016, Greg Benjamin filed a motion to vacate the August 27, 2009

dissolution order and parenting plan entered by default. In addition to noting clerical

errors in the documents, Greg argued that Kelli did not exercise reasonable diligence in

attempting to personally serve him and that Kelli misled the court regarding her ability to

serve him. In support of his contention, Greg attached an insurance check from 2010

addressed to both himself and Kelli and a 2007 computer entry from Oz Fitness that

indicated he remained on Kelli's account as her husband. Greg claimed he did not learn

of the dissolution proceedings until October 5, 2015. In response to Greg Benjamin's

motion to vacate, the court ordered a show cause hearing.

Kelli Benjamin filed a counter-motion for attorney's fees due to Greg's bad faith

and intransigence in bringing the motion to vacate without a legal basis. She contended

that Greg did not file the motion within a reasonable time and not within a year. In a

supporting declaration, Kelli denied that Greg lacked knowledge of the dissolution

proceedings and cited to a declaration dated October 13, 2015 wherein Greg allegedly

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