Ransome v. Ransome

822 So. 2d 746, 2002 WL 1350473
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJune 21, 2002
Docket2001 CW 2361
StatusPublished
Cited by27 cases

This text of 822 So. 2d 746 (Ransome v. Ransome) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ransome v. Ransome, 822 So. 2d 746, 2002 WL 1350473 (La. Ct. App. 2002).

Opinion

822 So.2d 746 (2002)

Marie Elaine D'Amico RANSOME
v.
Al Jerome RANSOME.

No. 2001 CW 2361.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, First Circuit.

June 21, 2002.

*749 David A. Hamilton, J. Marvin Montgomery, Baton Rouge, for Relator Darlene S. Ransome.

Robert J. Burns, Jr., Baton Rouge, for Respondent Marie Elaine D'Amico Ransome.

Before: CARTER, C.J., WHIPPLE, PARRO, FITZSIMMONS and LANIER[1], JJ.

WALTER I. LANIER, J. Pro Tem.

This action is a garnishment proceeding instituted in the East Baton Rouge Parish Family Court (family court) by a divorced wife against her former husband's attorney. The attorney defended by filing a declinatory exception raising the objection of lack of subject matter jurisdiction of this action. The family court overruled the declinatory exception. The attorney applied to this court for supervisory review of this ruling. We issued a writ of certiorari to examine and define the subject matter jurisdiction of the family court on this type of action.

FACTS

Respondent, Marie Ransome, and Al Ransome were divorced January 27, 1993. On that same date, they executed a community *750 property agreement settling and liquidating the community property that had existed between them.[2] Respondent subsequently filed a petition in the Nineteenth Judicial District Court to recover damages for Mr. Ransome's alleged breach of the community property settlement agreement. Mr. Ransome filed a reconventional demand asserting that the partition agreement should be rescinded based on lesion beyond moiety. Mr. Ransome then filed a declinatory exception raising the objection of lack of subject matter jurisdiction that the trial court denied. Mr. Ransome sought supervisory review of the district court's ruling. We reversed, holding that the family court was the court of proper jurisdiction. We remanded the case to the Nineteenth Judicial District Court to transfer this matter to family court. Ransome v. Ransome, 99-1291 (La.App. 1 Cir.2000), 791 So.2d 120. On remand, the family court rendered judgments in favor of the plaintiff for $4,588,284.50, with interest thereon at the rate of 8% from April 21, 1997, until paid, for court costs and for $50,000.00 in attorney's fees. Relator, Darlene S. Ransome, represented Al Ransome in these proceedings.[3]

In an effort to execute on the judgments, respondent initiated garnishment proceedings against relator.[4] Relator objected to one of the garnishment interrogatories and answered the rest.[5] Respondent then filed a motion to traverse the answers, alleging that the answers to two interrogatories were incomplete and/or misleading. In response, relator filed interrogatories to determine the basis of the facts that respondent would use to support the motion to traverse, but respondent refused to answer the interrogatories. Respondent next filed a motion to examine relator pursuant to La. C.C.P. art. 2451B[6] on all matters pertaining to Mr. Ransome's estate or property and also requested that relator produce certain items, alleging that she had assets at her disposal out of which the judgments could be satisfied.

Relator then filed a declinatory exception raising the objection of lack of subject *751 matter jurisdiction, contending that family court had no power to levy garnishments, and filed a peremptory exception raising the objection of no cause of action, contending that respondent's motion to traverse should be dismissed for failure to allege facts. Relator also filed a motion to quash the family court's order that relator appear to be examined on all matters pertaining to the estate of Mr. Ransome and respond to a subpoena as to numerous documents; she additionally filed a motion for a protective order pertaining to her deposition. The court held a contradictory hearing over the objection of relator. Relator's exceptions were overruled and her motion to quash was granted. The family court ruled relator could be deposed because there were extraordinary circumstances to justify the deposition. The family court ruled that the examination of relator could be conducted only upon matters relating to the property or former property of Mr. Ransome. From these rulings, relator sought supervisory writs.

SUBJECT MATTER JURISDICTION OF THE FAMILY COURT

Relator initially contends that the trial court erred in denying her declinatory exception raising the objection of lack of subject matter jurisdiction by finding that the family court has subject matter jurisdiction over a garnishment proceeding against a third party.

La. Const. of 1974, art. V, § 18 provides, "Notwithstanding any contrary provision of Section 16 of this Article, juvenile and family courts shall have jurisdiction as provided by law." The family court is a court of special or limited jurisdiction and only has the authority that is granted by the legislature. See State in Interest of Purcell, 337 So.2d 637, 639 (La.App. 3 Cir.1976); State v. Alexander, 320 So.2d 610, 611 (La.App. 4 Cir.1975), writ denied, 323 So.2d 807 (La.1976). Jurisdiction over the subject matter is the legal power and authority of a court to hear and determine a particular class of actions or proceedings, based upon the object of the demand, the amount in dispute, or the value of the right asserted. La. C.C.P. art. 2.

La. R.S. 13:1401 provides the jurisdictional parameters of the family court, as follows:

A. There is hereby established the family court for the parish of East Baton Rouge, which shall be a court of record with exclusive jurisdiction in the following proceedings:
(1) All actions for divorce, annulment of marriages, claims for contributions made by one spouse to the education or training of the other spouse, establishment or disavowal of the paternity of children, spousal and child support, and custody and visitation of children, as well as of all matters incidental to any of the foregoing proceedings, including but not restricted to the issuance of conservatory writs for the protection of community property, the awarding of attorney fees in judgments of divorce, the cumulation of and rendering executory of spousal and child support, the issuance of writs of fieri facias and garnishment under judgments of the court for spousal and child support and attorney fees, jurisdiction of which was vested in the Nineteenth Judicial District Court for the parish of East Baton Rouge prior to the establishment of the family court for the parish of East Baton Rouge.
(2)(a) All actions between spouses or former spouses for partition of community property and property acquired pursuant to a matrimonial regime.
(b) All actions for the termination or modification of a matrimonial regime.
*752 (c) All actions for the settlement and enforcement of claims arising from matrimonial regimes or the establishment thereof.
(d) All actions between former spouses seeking the enforcement of a judicial or contractual settlement of claims provided in this Subsection.
(3) All proceedings for writs of habeas corpus for the determination and enforcement of rights to the custody of minors or for the release of any person in actual custody in any case of which the family court has original jurisdiction.
B.

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Bluebook (online)
822 So. 2d 746, 2002 WL 1350473, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ransome-v-ransome-lactapp-2002.