Warner v. Brown

670 F. App'x 420
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedNovember 14, 2016
DocketNo. 16-3136
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 670 F. App'x 420 (Warner v. Brown) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Warner v. Brown, 670 F. App'x 420 (7th Cir. 2016).

Opinion

ORDER

Ede Warner, a divorced father of two children, appeals (on jurisdictional grounds) the dismissal of his suit against prosecutors in Kentucky and Indiana whom, he believes, acted improperly in connection with the enforcement of a child-support order. The district court dismissed Warner’s claims for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction based on the “domestic-relations exception” or alternatively on Warner’s attempt to seek review of a state court’s order. We modify the judgment to reflect dismissal for failure to state a claim rather than lack of jurisdiction, and as modified we affirm.

In 2009 Warner went through a bitter divorce in Kentucky, which was instigated when Warner’s then-wife reported to police that he physically abused her and lit a fire inside their home with her and their two kids inside. Warner was charged with arson, assault, and wanton endangerment, and he eventually entered a guilty plea (the particulars are not reflected in the record). After the couple divorced, a Kentucky court ordered Warner to pay child support based on his income as a professor at the University of Louisville. Shortly thereafter Warner lost his job, and he blames the Kentucky prosecutor for telling his employer that he should be subjected to a “return-to-work” examination after being released from incarceration.

Warner relocated to Indiana, still subject to his child-support obligations, and he found work only intermittently. The Kentucky prosecutor obtained from a Kentucky court a new child-support order that required the same monthly payment amount and was addressed to Warner at his home in Indiana. Warner says that the post office “held” the letter containing the order for five months, and by the time he received it, he owed over $5,000. Warner repeatedly called and emailed the Kentucky prosecutor’s office to get the order modified to reflect his then-current income, but the office “gave him the run around” and eventually used the new order to have his wages garnished in Indiana. Warner again contacted the Kentucky prosecutor, who refused to seek modification and said that officials in Indiana had initiated the garnishment. So Warner contacted the Indiana prosecutor’s office, which refused to meet with him because he was a noncustodial parent and directed him to obtain modification in Kentucky because according to the Indiana prosecutor, Kentucky had “continuing enforcement jurisdiction.” Warner tried to show the Indiana prosecutor that he already had sought an adjustment in Kentucky, but the Indiana prosecutor, Warner says, “demonstrated no interest” in his evidence. The Indiana prosecutor continued to pursue the enforcement, arrearages grew at about $1,000 per month, and his driver’s license was suspended.

Warner filed a form complaint in federal court against the Kentucky and Indiana prosecutors and the United States Post Office alleging violations of the “federal Uniform Family Support Act.” He asserted, first, that the Kentucky prosecutor committed misconduct and “harassed” him by knowingly using the outdated child-support order to garnish his wages, lying to him about which state’s prosecutor instituted the garnishment, arresting him in 2009 for crimes he claims he did not commit, “overcharging” him to induce his guilty plea, and suggesting a return-to-work exam. Second, Warner asserted that the Indiana prosecutor’s office violated unspecified constitutional rights by refusing to meet with him because he was not a [422]*422custodial parent and by continuing the enforcement action despite being aware of his reduced income. Finally, he alleged that the post office’s delay in delivering the new child-support order was part of a conspiracy to force him into debt and have his wages garnished. Warner sought damages, an investigation of the conspiracy, and an injunction to stop the defendants from enforcing the new child-support order.

The district court screened the complaint pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1915(e)(2) and dismissed it for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction. The court construed Warner’s allegations as a request to stop enforcement of the state court’s child-support order—a request that the court deemed barred under the domestic-relations exception to federal jurisdiction. The court added that the complaint sought review of a state-court decision, which federal courts lack jurisdiction to review. See D.C. Ct. App. v. Feldman, 460 U.S. 462, 103 S.Ct. 1303, 75 L.Ed.2d 206 (1983); Rooker v. Fid. Tr. Co., 263 U.S. 413, 44 S.Ct. 149, 68 L.Ed. 362 (1923). Finally, the court explained that Warner attempted to bring this action under the “Uniform Family Support Act,” which is not a federal law but a statute that aims to facilitate the enactment of similar child-support laws among the states. The court ordered Warner to show cause why the case should not be dismissed. His response failed to identify a basis for federal jurisdiction, so the-court dismissed the action.

On appeal Warner generally challenges the court’s jurisdictional ruling and asserts that federal courts should “tinker” with their jurisdiction in order to reduce disparities based on race and financial resources.

We begin by noting that the domestic-relations exception does not bar most of Warner’s suit. That exception applies only to a “narrow range” of cases—“only eases involving the issuance of a divorce, alimony, or child custody decree.” Ankenbrandt v. Richards, 504 U.S. 689, 701, 704, 112 S.Ct. 2206, 119 L.Ed.2d 468 (1992); Struck v. Cook Cty. Pub. Guardian, 508 F.3d 858, 859-60 (7th Cir. 2007); Friedlander v. Friedlander, 149 F.3d 739, 740 (7th Cir. 1998), Here, Warner does not request the issuance or modification of any such order. See Friedlander, 149 F.3d at 739-40 (concluding that the exception did not apply in a suit between a former husband and wife for intentional infliction of emotion distress caused by conduct in the enforcement of an alimony order); see also Lloyd v. Loeffler, 694 F.2d 489, 492 (7th Cir. 1982) (deciding that the exception did not apply in tort action based on the wrongful interference with custody because the issues were independent of those in the custody action). To the extent Warner seeks damages for alleged prosecutorial misconduct arising from enforcement of a child-support order, his claim falls outside the domestic-relations exception.

Nor does the Rooker-Feldman doctrine bar Warner’s claims. That doctrine, which also occupies “narrow ground,” is “confined to ... cases brought by state-court losers ... inviting district court review and rejection of [those state-court] judgments.” Exxon-Mobil v. Saudi Basic Indus. Corp., 544 U.S. 280, 284, 125 S.Ct. 1517, 161 L.Ed.2d 454 (2005); see Sykes v. Cook Cty. Cir. Ct. Prob. Div., 837 F.3d 736, 742 (7th Cir. 2016);

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Bluebook (online)
670 F. App'x 420, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/warner-v-brown-ca7-2016.