Sanders v. Sanders

812 So. 2d 749, 2002 WL 228053
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedFebruary 15, 2002
Docket2000 CA 2899
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 812 So. 2d 749 (Sanders v. Sanders) 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
Sanders v. Sanders, 812 So. 2d 749, 2002 WL 228053 (La. Ct. App. 2002).

Opinion

812 So.2d 749 (2002)

Rose Marie Warren SANDERS
v.
Stephen C. SANDERS.

No. 2000 CA 2899.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, First Circuit.

February 15, 2002.
Rehearing Denied March 25, 2002.
Writ Denied June 14, 2002.

*751 William F. Bologna, New Orleans, Counsel for Defendant/Appellant Stephen C. Sanders.

James E. Moorman, III, Mandeville, Counsel for Plaintiff/Appellee Rose Marie Warren Sanders.

Before: WHIPPLE, FOGG, and GUIDRY, JJ.

GUIDRY, J.

A non-resident, ex-husband appeals a judgment of the trial court denying his exception of lack of personal jurisdiction in an action brought by his ex-wife to rescind a extra-judicial community property partition agreement. For the following reasons, we affirm.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

In 1968, the parties to this appeal were married in Madison, Tennessee. Of their marriage, one child was born. In February 1988, the parties moved to Covington, Louisiana in St. Tammany Parish and maintained their matrimonial domicile there until the time of their legal separation. On September 10, 1990, Mr. Sanders filed a petition for separation, and a judgment granting the same was rendered on December 14, 1990. On that same date in New Orleans, Louisiana, the parties executed a voluntary community property partition agreement. In that document, both parties attested to being residents of St. Tammany Parish. In addition to partitioning the community property of the parties, the agreement provided that Mr. Sanders would pay Ms. Sanders the sum of $12,000 in alimony annually for a period of ten years after the rendition of a judgment of divorce.[1] Approximately four months later, a judgment of divorce was rendered by the Twenty-second Judicial District Court for the Parish of St. Tammany on the petition of Mr. Sanders.

On December 4, 1995, Ms. Sanders filed a petition in St. Tammany Parish to rescind the extrajudicial community property partition agreement based on allegations of fraud and lesion. Mr. Sanders, in response, filed exceptions of insufficiency of citation, service of process, prescription and lack of personal and subject-matter jurisdiction. A hearing on the exceptions was held on May 16, 2000, at the outset of which Mr. Sanders withdrew the exception of prescription. By a judgment rendered in open court and signed on May 24, 2000, the trial court denied all the remaining exceptions raised by Mr. Sanders. Mr. Sanders appeals the May 24, 2000 judgment, alleging that the trial court erred in not maintaining the exception pleading lack of personal jurisdiction.

DISCUSSION

The crux of Mr. Sanders' argument that the trial court lacks personal jurisdiction to entertain the suit brought by Ms. Sanders is that the trial court assumed jurisdiction based on the theory of "continuing jurisdiction" of matters incidental to the divorce proceedings. Mr. Sanders is correct in his argument that the subject partition agreement is not a matter that is or was "incidental" to the parties' divorce proceedings. The partition agreement at issue was voluntarily entered into by the parties and was neither supervised, approved or adopted by the trial court in the *752 course of the divorce proceedings. Therefore, clearly the partition agreement is not a matter that is incidental to the divorce proceedings over which the trial court formerly exercised jurisdiction. Cf. Gowins v. Gowins, 466 So.2d 32, 37 (La.1985). The fact that the extrajudicial partition agreement is not incidental to the parties' divorce proceedings does not mean, however, that a court of this state lacks jurisdiction to consider Ms. Sanders' suit seeking to void the agreement. To the contrary, applying the standard due process analysis, we must still determine whether Mr. Sanders' contacts with this state are sufficient for the assertion of personal jurisdiction in this matter.

In reviewing a ruling on an exception of lack of personal jurisdiction over a nonresident defendant by a Louisiana court, this court conducts a de novo review of the legal issue of personal jurisdiction. Pounds v. Florida Power & Light Co., 99-1091, p. 3 (La.App. 1st Cir.5/12/00), 762 So.2d 161, 163, writ denied, 00-1763 (La.9/22/00), 768 So.2d 604.

The requirement that a court have personal jurisdiction flows not from Article III of the U.S. Constitution, but from the Due Process Clause. The personal jurisdiction requirement recognizes and protects an individual liberty interest. It represents a restriction on judicial power not as a matter of sovereignty, but as a matter of individual liberty. Insurance Corp. of Ireland, Ltd. v. Compagnie des Bauxites de Guinee, 456 U.S. 694, 702, 102 S.Ct. 2099, 2104, 72 L.Ed.2d 492 (1982). In Spomer v. Aggressor Intern., Inc., 00-1646, p. 4 (La.App. 1st Cir.9/28/01), 807 So.2d 267, 271, this court noted that

Under Louisiana's Long-Arm Statute, LSA-R.S. 13:3201(B), a court of this state may exercise personal jurisdiction over a nonresident on any basis consistent with the Louisiana Constitution and the Constitution of the United States. Therefore, the limits of the Louisiana Long-Arm Statute and the limits of constitutional due process are coextensive, and the sole inquiry into jurisdiction over a nonresident is a one-step analysis of the constitutional due process requirements.

In order to subject a defendant who is not present within the territory of the forum to a judgment in personam, due process requires that he have certain minimum contacts with it such that the maintenance of the suit does not offend `traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice.' International Shoe Co. v. State of Washington, Office of Unemployment Compensation and Placement, 326 U.S. 310, 316, 66 S.Ct. 154, 158, 90 L.Ed. 95 (1945). When a forum seeks to exercise specific jurisdiction over an out-of-state defendant who has not consented to suit there, the requirement of meaningful minimum contacts is satisfied when the defendant has purposefully directed his activities at residents of the forum and the litigation results from alleged injuries arising out of or related to those activities. Spomer, 00-1646 at 5, 807 So.2d at 271.

With respect to interstate contractual obligations, it has been held that parties who reach out beyond one state and create continuing relationships and obligations with citizens of another state are subject to regulation and sanctions in the other state for the consequences of their activities. Burger King Corporation v. Rudzewicz, 471 U.S. 462, 473, 105 S.Ct. 2174, 2182, 85 L.Ed.2d 528 (1985). It is generally held that those nonresidents who enter into interstate contracts with a forum state's citizens subject themselves to the specific jurisdiction of that state in a suit arising from the contractual obligation. Salley v. Colonial Marine Industries, *753 Inc., 95-2215, p. 13 (La.App. 4th Cir.9/11/96), 680 So.2d 1242, 1249. It is sufficient for purposes of due process that the suit was based on a contract which had substantial connection with that State. McGee v. International Life Insurance Company, 355 U.S. 220, 223, 78 S.Ct. 199, 201, 2 L.Ed.2d 223 (1957).

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812 So. 2d 749, 2002 WL 228053, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sanders-v-sanders-lactapp-2002.