Jennifer L. Schutter v. Paul J. Seibold

CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedMay 6, 2025
DocketWD86995
StatusPublished

This text of Jennifer L. Schutter v. Paul J. Seibold (Jennifer L. Schutter v. Paul J. Seibold) 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
Jennifer L. Schutter v. Paul J. Seibold, (Mo. Ct. App. 2025).

Opinion

IN THE MISSOURI COURT OF APPEALS WESTERN DISTRICT JENNIFER L. SCHUTTER, ) ) Respondent, ) WD86995 v. ) ) OPINION FILED: ) May 6, 2025 PAUL J. SEIBOLD, ) ) Appellant. )

Appeal from the Circuit Court of Platte County, Missouri The Honorable Daren L. Adkins, Judge

Before Division One: Karen King Mitchell, Presiding Judge, and Lisa White Hardwick and Mark D. Pfeiffer, Judges

Paul Seibold (Father) appeals from the judgment of the Circuit Court of Platte

County, Missouri (Missouri court), denying, on the basis of the Uniform Child Custody

Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act (UCCJEA), §§ 452.700-452.930, 1 his family access

motion and motion for contempt against Jennifer Schutter (Mother) and his motions to

modify child support. Father raises four points on appeal. He asserts that the Missouri

court erred in dismissing his family access and contempt motions because (1) the

UCCJEA does not govern whether the Missouri court has jurisdiction to hear motions to

1 All statutory references are to the Revised Statutes of Missouri (Supp. 2023). enforce its prior custody determinations, and (2) the UCCJEA permits the Missouri court

to enforce a custody order issued by the Tarrant County, Texas court (Texas court)

(Points I and II, respectively). Father also argues that the Missouri court erred in denying

his request, made in his motion for new trial, to amend his pleading seeking enforcement

of the Texas court’s custody order because Missouri courts are required to grant leave to

amend when sustaining a motion to dismiss (Point III). Finally, Father contends that the

Missouri court erred in dismissing his motions to modify child support because the

UCCJEA does not govern support proceedings (Point IV). We affirm in part and reverse

in part.

Background 2

Father and Mother have actively litigated child custody and support issues for the

past thirteen years, filing dozens of motions with the Missouri court. This is the second

appeal by the parties regarding custody issues. For purposes of this appeal, we recite

only the background information relevant to the issues raised here.

Father and Mother were married on November 30, 2002, and one child (Son) was

born of the marriage. Son has extensive medical, educational, and therapy needs and

requires 24-hour assistance and supervision. Father and Mother separated on March 5,

2012, and the initial judgment of dissolution was entered on December 31, 2013. The

court awarded sole legal custody of Son to Mother and joint physical custody of Son to

2 “We view the evidence and the reasonable inferences drawn from the evidence in the light most favorable to the judgment, disregard all evidence and inferences contrary to the judgment, and defer to the trial court’s superior position to make credibility determinations.” Houston v. Crider, 317 S.W.3d 178, 186 (Mo. App. S.D. 2010).

2 Mother and Father, and the court ordered Father to pay $2,620 in monthly child support. 3

On March 7, 2019, the Missouri court entered a “First Amended Judgment of

Modification,” which approved Mother’s relocation to Texas with Son, granted Father

periods of supervised visitation with Son in both Missouri and Texas, and ordered Father

to pay $3,000 per month in child support (the 2019 Modification).

On November 1, 2019, Father filed a motion to modify custody and child support.

Thereafter, Father filed several other motions including a family access motion 4 and a

motion to quash Mother’s garnishment of his wages. At that point, the Missouri court

concluded that it did not have exclusive, continuing jurisdiction under the UCCJEA and

that, even if it did, it was an inconvenient forum and Texas was a more appropriate forum

under the UCCJEA. In dismissing Father’s motions, the Missouri court ordered that “all

motions now pending by and between the parties in this case, or any sub-case, are hereby

dismissed.” Father appealed to this court, arguing, in part, that the Missouri court erred

in dismissing, pursuant to the UCCJEA, his family access motion and motion to quash

garnishment because the UCCJEA governs only Missouri’s jurisdiction to make child

custody determinations and does not govern any other proceedings. We reversed in favor

of Father, concluding that the Missouri court erred in dismissing his family access motion

and motion to quash on the basis of the UCCJEA. Schutter v. Seibold, 632 S.W.3d 820,

831-32 (Mo. App. W.D. 2021) (Schutter I).

3 Neither party challenges the Missouri court’s jurisdiction to make the initial custody determination. 4 An aggrieved person may file a family access motion if a parent denies or interferes with custody or visitation without good cause. § 452.400.3.

3 Following Schutter I, Father continued to file, in the Missouri court, family access

motions alleging Mother had denied Father parenting time with Son in violation of the

2019 Modification. On February 23, 2023, the Missouri court issued a Family Access

Judgment in which the court found that Mother had denied or interfered with Father’s

custody or visitation on two occasions without good cause. Accordingly, the court

awarded Father two specific periods of compensatory time to be exercised in May and

June 2023. The same day the court entered the Family Access Judgment, Father filed,

with the Missouri court, a motion to “modify, correct child support.” 5

On May 9, 2023, Father filed, in the Missouri court, another family access motion

alleging that he had travelled to Texas to visit Son per the Family Access Judgment, but

Mother denied him time with Son. On May 30, 2023, Father also filed, in the Missouri

court, a motion for contempt, claiming, among other things, that Mother was in violation

of the controlling parenting plan and the February Family Access Judgment. The next

day, the Missouri court made a docket entry regarding a conference it held with the

Tarrant County, Texas court. According to the entry, the Missouri court would “continue

to enforce its Judgments until such time as [the] TX [court] enters a child custody Order

or Modificatio[]n Judgment.” 6

5 Father again sought modification of child support in a response he filed with the Missouri court on December 19, 2023. In that response, Father alleged that Mother had voluntarily reduced her income by nearly fifty percent and, for that and other reasons, he requested a modification of his child support obligation. 6 According to Mother’s brief, on June 1, 2023, the Texas court issued an order stating, “This Court finds that it has jurisdiction over this case. The Court in Missouri will hear enforcements, but not modifications, until the Texas [Court] enters an order,

4 On August 31, 2023, the Missouri court entered a judgment of contempt, finding

that Mother had violated the February Family Access Judgment. On October 5, 2023,

Father filed, in the Missouri court, yet another family access motion alleging that Mother

continued to deny Father time with Son in violation of the August 2023 contempt

judgment. In a related motion for contempt filed in the Missouri court on December 19,

2023, Father alleged that Mother had denied him a total of 21 days of compensatory

parenting time to which the parties had previously agreed.

Mother moved to dismiss Father’s family access and contempt motions, alleging

that she had registered the 2019 Modification with the Texas court and that court had

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Bluebook (online)
Jennifer L. Schutter v. Paul J. Seibold, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jennifer-l-schutter-v-paul-j-seibold-moctapp-2025.