Kemp v. Kemp

172 Misc. 738, 16 N.Y.S.2d 26, 1939 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 2485
CourtNew York Family Court
DecidedNovember 29, 1939
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 172 Misc. 738 (Kemp v. Kemp) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Family Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kemp v. Kemp, 172 Misc. 738, 16 N.Y.S.2d 26, 1939 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 2485 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1939).

Opinion

Sicher, J.

On January 5, 1939, there was entered an order of this court directing the respondent husband to pay the weekly sum of thirty-five dollars for the support of petitioner wife.

[739]*739Respondent complied with that order until recently advised by new counsel to disregard it. It is conceded that the consequent arrears aggregated $105 already on November 10,1939, and that the default is deliberate and without excuse save for the legal objections tendered.

Those objections consist of a contention that the petition herein should be dismissed and the aforementioned January 5, 1939, order be vacated, upon grounds phrased in respondent’s brief as follows:

“ (1) This tribunal lacks jurisdiction in the premises.
" (2) The proof is overwhelming that there is no imminent danger that the petitioner will become a public charge.”

Neither of those stated grounds is sound. The first of them is contrary to the actual facts and the law; and the second is immaterial as a matter of law.

Upon the November 10,1939, hearing I indicated that as no appeal had been taken from that January 5, 1939, order, and the time to appeal therefrom had expired, it was binding on both parties and me in the absence of any proof of subsequent change of circumstances.

Respondent’s present counsel did not participate in the January 5,1939, hearing, having been retained only recently. But Associate Assistant Corporation Counsel Trubin hadrepresented petitioner also at that time, and, because of her recollection of what had then transpired, objected to questions designed to review the issues considered and determined upon the January 5, 1939, hearing, urging the impropriety of respondent’s indirectly seeking in effect a rehearing of matters adjudicated by the aforementioned January 5, 1939, order after expiration of the time for appeal therefrom.

In deference to respondent’s counsel’s earnest insistence that such order was a nullity, for lack of jurisdiction of the subject-matter, I allowed certain testimony provisionally, subject to its being stricken out after my reading the minutes of the January 5, 1939, hearing, which respondent’s counsel offered to furnish and has since furnished.

A reading of those minutes confirms the associate assistant corporation counsel’s recollection, and also my own impression that the only change of circumstances since the January 5,1939, hearing is the substitution of zealous new counsel for respondent.

Obviously, any objection to the jurisdiction must be solely one of lack of subject-matter. For, a notice of general appearance in respondent’s behalf was filed on November 23, 1938, and a like notice by superseding attorneys on December 15,1938, and respondent himself testified at the January 5. 1939, hearing under question[740]*740ing of his own counsel. Moreover, on July 26, 1939, respondent successfully opposed petitioner’s application for an increase in the amount of the January 5, 1939, order, a continuance of which was that day directed after both sides had been heard. And, as above remarked, respondent thereafter complied with such continued order until recently advised to ignore it.

I have personally examined the many authorities cited in the brief submitted by respondent’s counsel and find that, with the exception of Matter of Condaras v. Condaras (252 App. Div. 871) and Matter of Costa v. Costa (247 id. 192), all of them relate to prior statutes which are no longer in force and have no bearing upon the residential jurisdiction and powers of Domestic Relations Court of the City of New York. True, this is a statutory court, and its jurisdiction is, therefore, limited and circumscribed by the statute which created it and confers and defines its powers. But this court is enabled to act to the full extent of such statutory grant, and the powers expressly conferred upon it, as a civil tribunal, are not to be narrowed by resort to decisions under criminal statutes since outmoded or repealed.

The Domestic Relations Court of the City of New York was created by chapter 482 of the Laws of 1933 (known as the Domestic Relations Court Act of the City of New York ”). By that enactment the then Children’s Court of the City of New York, which had been constituted a separate statutory court on September 15, 1924, was renamed Domestic Relations Court of the City of New York ” and its functions were extended and its jurisdiction enlarged by merging into it, as a co-ordinate branch, the Family Court which had previously been a part of the criminal courts system of the city of New York.

Section 161 of Domestic Relations Court Act provides: All laws and parts of laws, whether general, local or special, which are inconsistent with or in conflict with or repugnant to any provision of this act shall be deemed not to apply.”

And in Matter of Kane v. Necci (269 N. Y. 13) the New York Court of Appeals, construing the Domestic Relations Court Act of the City of New York, held that the Domestic Relations Court of the City of New York thereby created is a civil, not a criminal, court.

Accordingly, it is futile to cite and copiously quote from such decisions as People v. Crouse (86 App. Div. 352) (dealing with section 685 of the Greater New York Charter enacted in 1901 and since repealed) or Bayne v. People (14 Hun, 181) (involving chapter 395 of the Laws of 1871, which made it a crime for a husband to abandon his family within Kings county); and there is no validity to respondent’s counsel’s argument that this proceeding is of a [741]*741criminal nature, and is not intended as a remedy for deserted wives, but as a protection for the city of New York against the expense of supporting paupers.”

True, during the calendar year 1938 the Family Court Division of Domestic Relations Court of the City of New York collected upwards of S3,300,000 for the support of wives, children and “ poor relatives,” and a large part of such sum doubtless represents a saving to the taxpayers of the city of New York. But that is only one of its many functions in dealing with broken homes. Despite the disheartening handicap of gravely insufficient clerical, probation officer, and other essential, personnel, this court daily plays a more versatile role in the socialized treatment of family legal problems than merely the single part described by respondent’s counsel as the protection for the city of New York against the expense of supporting paupers.” Indeed, the enumeration of the powers conferred on the Family Court Division specifically includes the power: “ (1) To order support of a wife or child or both, irrespective of whether either is likely to become a public charge, as justice requires having due regard to the circumstances of the respective parties.” (Italics supplied.) (Dom. Rel. Ct. Act, § 92, subd. 1.)

The restriction against entertaining a wife’s petition for support unless it is shown to the satisfaction of the Family Court Division that the petitioner is likely to become a public charge applies only in a case where an action for divorce, separation or annulment is pending in the Supreme Court of the State of New York or there has been a final adjudication by the Supreme Court denying alimony in a separation action or there exists a formal agreement .to separate. (Dom. Rel. Ct. Act, § 137. Cf. Matter of Costa v.

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Bluebook (online)
172 Misc. 738, 16 N.Y.S.2d 26, 1939 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 2485, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kemp-v-kemp-nyfamct-1939.