State v. Fontenot

587 So. 2d 771, 1991 WL 194275
Louisiana Court of Appeal·Decided September 30, 1991·No. 22325-CA·Published·Cited by 7 cases

Opinion

587 So.2d 771 (1991)

In re STATE of Louisiana (Faye Jean Fontenot), Appellant,
v.
Gerald L. FONTENOT, Appellee.

No. 22325-CA.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Second Circuit.

September 30, 1991.
Rehearing Denied October 24, 1991.

*772 Paul J. Carmouche, Dist. Atty., Tommy J. Johnson, Asst. Dist. Atty., Shreveport, for appellant.

Paul W. Cary, Shreveport, for appellee.

Before MARVIN, NORRIS, LINDSAY, BROWN and STEWART, JJ.

LINDSAY, Judge.

The state appeals from a juvenile court judgment which refused to give full faith and credit to a Georgia judgment for child support arrearages of more than $28,000. For the reasons assigned below, we reverse and remand.[1]

FACTS

Faye Jean Fontenot and Gerald L. Fontenot were married in 1964 in the state of Georgia. Of this union two children were born: Franklin Todd Fontenot (DOB May 24, 1967), and Jason Lynn Fontenot (DOB February 11, 1970). A final judgment of divorce was rendered in Georgia in 1972. Under the terms of this judgment, the defendant, Gerald Fontenot, was directed to pay child support of $25.00 per week per child. (The judgment also denied him any visitation rights.) The defendant subsequently moved to Caddo Parish, Louisiana.

The defendant became delinquent in his payment of the child support. Consequently, the District Attorney of Cobb County, Georgia, transmitted to Louisiana a claim for arrearages and support on behalf of Mrs. Fontenot under the Uniform Reciprocal Enforcement of Support Act (URESA). (Mrs. Fontenot and the children lived in Smyrna, Georgia.) This transmittal was received in Caddo Juvenile Court on April 4, 1983. The documents alleged that the defendant owed arrearages of $29,061.55.

In response to the allegations of arrearages contained in the Georgia transmittal, the defendant filed a peremptory exception of prescription, asserting that under Louisiana law either the three-year prescription for child support or the ten-year prescriptive period for money judgments barred recovery of some of the child support payments. During a hearing on May 26, 1983, *773 the parties stipulated that any arrearages that had accrued three years before that date had prescribed. The court sustained the exception of prescription on that basis. As part of the agreement between the parties, it was decided that the state would make no effort to seek the remaining arrearages at that time in order to afford the defendant a chance to establish visitation with the children. Subsequently, in June, 1983, the Caddo Parish Juvenile Court rendered judgment directing that the defendant pay child support of $25 per week per child or a lump sum of $216.67 per month to the DHHR. The judgment also stated that the right to claim arrearages was reserved to Mrs. Fontenot "with exception of the arrears as prescribed."

In 1985, the defendant sought and received a modification of the support order based upon the older son having reached the legal age of majority. Thereafter, the amount of child support was set at $25.00 per week for the younger son.

In February 1986, a hearing was held pursuant to the state's motion to set the previously specified arrearages. Mrs. Fontenot claimed arrearages of $26,350.26. However, the court referred to the prior exception of prescription which the court had sustained. The court then fixed the total arrearages at $7,800 (or $25 per week per child for 3 years). However, because the elder son was a major, the court held that the mother had no right to seek arrearages on his behalf.[2] Thus, a judgment was signed awarding arrearages in the amount of $3,900 for the younger son. There was no appeal from this judgment.

In July, 1986, the state moved to cancel $988 in arrearages because the State of Georgia had intercepted $988 of the defendant's federal income tax refund. The motion was granted.

In February, 1988, the defendant filed a motion to terminate the support order for the younger son because he had reached the full age of majority. The support order was terminated effective February 11, 1988. At that time, arrearages were fixed at the sum of $2,887.00, and the defendant was ordered to pay $75.00 per month as of April 1, 1988, to apply on the arrearages. The judgment called for the defendant to receive credit for any prior IRS intercepts.

In May of 1989, the defendant filed a motion to suspend and terminate the payments on the arrearages. The defendant asserted that he had paid $1,401.00 to the DHHR and that $1,417.00 had been paid through the IRS intercept program. By the defendant's calculations, he owed only $69.00 on the arrearages. The state argued that the defendant was not entitled to credit for the IRS intercepts because that money was intercepted by the State of Georgia to be used towards a Georgia judgment for arrearages of $28,266.86. The trial court set arrearages at $69.00 and ordered that the case be dismissed upon the payment of $69.00 and subject to the receipt of $514.00 from the IRS intercept to Georgia. On September 27, 1989, the court signed a judgment dismissing the URESA judgment with prejudice.

At about the same time, an action against the defendant was apparently pending in the Superior Court of Cobb County, Georgia, in which the defendant was adjudged to owe in excess of $28,000 in past due child support. The record in this case indicates that on September 19, 1989, the Superior Court in Cobb County, Georgia, finding that the defendant had been personally served with process and that the court had jurisdiction over him, rendered judgment for past due child support in the amount of $28,266.86. The Georgia court also found the defendant to be in contempt for failure to pay.

On January 8, 1990, an interstate child support enforcement transmittal was filed in the Juvenile Court of Caddo Parish, Louisiana. The transmittal from the Georgia Child Support Recovery Unit sought enforcement of the Georgia judgment and collection of the arrearages in the amount of $28,266.86 through a wage withholding *774 order. It attached copies of the Georgia judgment dated September 19, 1989. On February 6, 1990, the defendant filed a petition to stay service (interstate). The defendant alleged error in the amount of current support owed; error in the amount of arrearages that had accrued; that the court or agency which issued the support order lack personal jurisdiction over him; and the prescriptive period precluded enforcement of all or part of the arrearages. On February 22, 1990, a notice of proposed income assignment order (interstate) was filed by the Louisiana DHHR. It proposed that the defendant pay $25.00 per week on the arrearages.

On March 7, 1990, the defendant filed a peremptory exception of res judicata, claiming that the issue of arrearages had already been litigated. On March 20, 1990, the trial court sustained the exception of res judicata. It ordered that the "notice of proposed income assignment order (interstate)" be dismissed with prejudice.

The state appeals. It alleges that the trial court erred in not recognizing the September, 1989, judgment of the state of Georgia and giving it full faith and credit.

LAW

Under the U.S. Constitution, Article 4, Section 1, a court in Louisiana must give full faith and credit within the state to a judgment of a court in a sister state unless the court in the foreign forum lacked jurisdiction. In a suit for the recognition of a foreign judgment, the only issue in the foreign proceeding which a Louisiana court may review is the question of the foreign court's jurisdiction over the parties.

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State v. Fontenot, 587 So. 2d 771, 1991 WL 194275 (La. Ct. App. 1991).

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