Title: POWERS v. DISTRICT COURT OF TULSA COUNTY

State: oklahoma

Issuer: Oklahoma Supreme Court

Document:

POWERS v. DISTRICT COURT OF TULSA COUNTY  POWERS v. DISTRICT COURT OF TULSA COUNTY 2009 OK 91 Case Number: 105611; No. 106432 Decided: 12/08/2009 As Corrected: December 29, 2009 THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA PAUL M. POWERS, Petitioner, v. THE DISTRICT COURT OF TULSA COUNTY, STATE OF OKLAHOMA, and the Honorable TERRY H. BITTING, Special District Judge, Respondents. AND PAUL M. POWERS, Petitioner, v. THE DISTRICT COURT OF TULSA COUNTY, STATE OF OKLAHOMA, and the Honorable CARL FUNDERBURK, Special District Judge, Respondent. APPLICATIONS FOR EXTRAORDINARY RELIEF ¶0 Non-resident Husband/Father challenged the in personam jurisdiction of the District Court in two proceedings wherein Wife/Mother sought, at various times, divorce, temporary child support, alimony, and property division. The District Court of Tulsa County, the Hon. Terry H. Bitting, Special Judge, and the Hon. Carl Funderburk, Special Judge, denied Husband's jurisdictional challenges in two separate trial court proceedings. Husband then filed two proceedings in this Court seeking extraordinary relief. We hold that (1) a trial court's order determining that it possessed in personam jurisdiction used an incorrect standard for the procedural posture of the case and prohibition must issue to prevent enforcement of that order, (2) circumstances in a physically and economically abusive marital relationship may show that an abusive spouse is purposefully availing him-/herself of conducting activity in the forum state by directing and controlling that the abused spouse and child reside in that forum, and that 43 O.S.Supp. 2004 § 601-201 of the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act may be applied consistent with due process, (3) in one case Husband's jurisdictional challenge was not adequately supported by a record in the extraordinary writ proceeding, and in another case the jurisdictional challenge raised by Husband was insufficient to show that Wife's petition failed to give a short and plain statement of the grounds upon which the in personam jurisdiction rested, and (4) the trial court is directed to provide a full and fair opportunity to the parties for providing any evidence on the issue of in personam jurisdiction. APPLICATIONS TO ASSUME ORIGINAL JURISDICTION GRANTED; WRIT OF PROHIBITION DENIED IN NO. 105,611; AND WRIT OF PROHIBITION GRANTED IN PART AND DENIED IN PART IN NO. 106,432 Anthony Allen, James W. Feamster, III-PLLC, Tulsa, Oklahoma for Petitioner in No. 105,611. Anthony Allen, Seymour & Graham LLP, Tulsa, Oklahoma for Petitioner in No. 106,432 Jack R. Givens, Givens and Givens, Tulsa, Oklahoma, for Real Party in Interest in Nos. 105,611 and 106,432. EDMONDSON, C.J ¶1 These two proceedings involve challenges to in personam jurisdiction made by a husband to the matrimonial-based claims of his wife. We adjudicate both proceedings by a single opinion without consolidation. We hold in No. 105,611 that the record presented in the extraordinary writ proceeding is insufficient to challenge the district court's order. We hold in No. 106,432 that the district court's order sustaining in personam jurisdiction over the husband is in error because (1) Husband's motion challenged the facial sufficiency of Wife's petition, as amended, and not the factual basis of in personam jurisdiction over Husband, and (2) the trial court's reliance upon facts appearing beyond the face of the pleadings is an application of an incorrect standard for testing the facial sufficiency of those pleadings.1 We deny prohibition in No. 105,611. In No. 106,432 we deny prohibition in part, and grant prohibition in part to prevent enforcement of the District Court's order and direct the trial court to provide a full and fair opportunity for the parties to present any evidence on the issue of in personam jurisdiction. We assume original jurisdiction pursuant to Okla. Const. Art. 7 § 4 to explain procedure when challenging the sufficiency of in personam jurisdiction allegations involving 43 O.S.Supp. 2004 § 601-201 of Oklahoma's version of the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act. I. No. 105,611 ¶2 Husband and Wife resided in the State of Missouri. Wife moved to Oklahoma and a few days later filed an action seeking legal separation, alimony, child support, child custody and attorney's fees.2 Two days later Husband filed an action for divorce in Missouri. Husband was served with process in the Oklahoma proceeding but did not answer or otherwise plead within the time allowed by 12 O.S.Supp. 2004 § 2012, and 12 O.S.2001 §§ 2026, 2027, and District Court Rule 2.3 Wife, with notice to Husband, filed a motion for default judgment. ¶3 After the time to answer or otherwise plead, Husband filed a special appearance with a motion to dismiss challenging in personam jurisdiction. The trial court held one hearing, without adjudicating the motion to dismiss, and allowed Wife time to amend her petition. The trial court then held a hearing, determined Husband was in default, declined to consider the motion to dismiss, took evidence on the issue of temporary support, and issued an order for temporary support. Husband then filed a motion to vacate the temporary support order and requested that the trial court consider his motion to dismiss. ¶4 During a trial court hearing, discussion was had whether Husband's motion to dismiss could be considered when the trial court had not granted Husband leave to file out of time, and whether a request for such leave would waive in personam jurisdiction. Prior to expiration of the time to answer or otherwise plead, a party may request additional time pursuant to 12 O.S. 2001 § 2006(B)(1) to file a special appearance and motion to dismiss for lack of in personam jurisdiction without waiving the defense of lack of in personam jurisdiction.4 A request for extension of time pursuant to § 2006(B)(2) may be granted to file a special appearance and motion to dismiss without waiving in personam jurisdiction if the failure to act timely was the result of excusable neglect. Thus, a trial court's denial of either a § 2006(B)(1) or § 2006 (B)(2) motion combined with a special appearance does not act to waive a defendant's defense of a lack of in personam jurisdiction. ¶5 Husband's special appearance and motion to dismiss filed after his time to answer or otherwise plead without leave of court, or having been treated by the court as timely, is a nullity and of no effect.5 Husband's untimely motion to dismiss and special appearance filed without leave of court was not an appearance, but the filing did not waive in personam jurisdiction. Husband's failure to answer or otherwise plead within the time allowed by the Pleading Code resulted in a default "judgment" for temporary child support, but did not waive his in personam jurisdiction defense.6 ¶6 Federal court opinions discussing challenges to in personam jurisdiction, both pre- and post-adoption of the Oklahoma Pleading Code, state that when a motion to dismiss for lack of in personam jurisdiction is filed "the district court must accept as true the allegations set forth in the complaint to the extent they are uncontroverted by defendant's affidavits." Ten Mile Industrial Park v. Western Plain Service Corp., 810 F.2d 1518, 1524 (10th Cir.1987). ¶7 In courts of this state, a special appearance with a motion to dismiss is a proper method to challenge in personam jurisdiction. The defendant initially has the burden of challenging the propriety of a summons, jurisdiction, or venue, but once this is done, the burden of proof shifts to the plaintiff. To satisfy the initial burden, a defendant will ordinarily need to accompany a motion to dismiss with an affidavit from either a person with knowledge of the facts, if possible, or otherwise by an attorney who states what the proof would show at a hearing. David S. Clark & Charles W. Adams, Oklahoma Civil Pretrial Procedure: Jurisdiction, Service of Process, Venue, Motions to Dismiss Under Section 2012, § 10.1, 253, 257 (1995). Normally, motions seeking a dismissal for lack of personal jurisdiction are accompanied by detailed affidavits setting forth the absence of contacts with Oklahoma. Conversely, responses to the motion are also accompanied by affidavits attempting to establish the sufficiency of the contacts to warrant the assertion of personal jurisdiction. 1-A Charles W. Adams & Daniel J. Boudreau, Vernon's Oklahoma Forms 2d: Civil Procedure, Motion to Dismiss-Lack of Jurisdiction Over the Person, § 4.4, 195, 196 (1999). This Court has often explained that when in personam jurisdiction is challenged the jurisdiction over a non-resident defendant cannot be inferred, but must affirmatively appear from the trial court record, and the burden of proof in the trial court is upon the party asserting that jurisdiction exists. ¶8 Approximately twenty years ago this Court stated that a motion may raise an issue of fact pursuant to Rule 4(c) of the Rules for District Courts. In Mott v. Carlson, ¶9 Husband filed a motion to vacate the default "judgment" with a request for the trial court to hear his previously filed motion to dismiss. Husband's Summary of Record in his brief states that the trial court's hearing decided both the motion to dismiss and motion to vacate, and that the trial court concluded that in personam jurisdiction was present under the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act, and that the trial court did not rely on a theory of default by Husband used by the trial court at a previous hearing. Brief at page 5. ¶10 This proceeding is not an appeal, but a challenge to a District Court's order in an action independent of the one before the trial court, and we examine the arguments presented to the trial court that appear in the record prepared for us by the parties. Christian v. Gray, ¶11 Husband's record in this Court includes the trial court docket which shows that Wife filed a response to the motion to vacate. But Husband does not include in this writ proceeding a copy of Wife's response to the motion to vacate that was filed in the trial court. ¶12 In sum, due to the state of the record presented to this Court, no conclusion may be reached whether (1) the trial court considered the temporary support order as an intermediate order II. No. 106,432 A. Husband's Challenge to the Allegations in the Petition ¶13 Wife filed a petition for divorce in a second proceeding in Tulsa County. Husband filed a special appearance and motion to dismiss for lack of in personam jurisdiction. The trial court granted the motion to dismiss. Wife sought reconsideration, and after a response by Husband and reply by Wife, the trial court granted the motion and vacated its earlier order. The trial court's ruling stated that Oklahoma was the "home state" of the child and that a Missouri court had agreed that the divorce as well as custody and support issues should be decided in Oklahoma. ¶14 Husband filed a special appearance and motion to dismiss in the District Court. The motion states that a divorce proceeding is pending in Missouri between the parties, but the motion has no affidavit or evidentiary substitute bringing that fact before the trial court. ¶15 Wife's verified petition states that "Respondent [Husband] agreed with Petitioner that she could go to Oklahoma with their child, . . . [and] remove her own separate furniture from the marital home to Oklahoma . . . ." ¶16 A federal court is a court of limited jurisdiction and jurisdiction must be pled by the party invoking the court's jurisdiction. ¶17 Various methods may be used to place facts before a trial court to receive judicial recognition, and Professor Fraser has stated that " . . . if a long-arm statute must be used to serve the defendant the plaintiff should plead facts that show such service is proper." George B. Fraser, The Petition Under the New Pleading Code, 38 Okla. L. Rev. 245, 246 (1985). That showing of proper service is based upon a notice-pleading standard, for the facts necessary to support in personam jurisdiction must appear of record, not necessarily on the face of the petition itself. ¶18 In summary, when a plaintiff's petition invokes a court's long-arm jurisdiction ¶19 In supervisory review of a trial court's order adjudicating a motion to dismiss challenging the facial sufficiency of a petition asserting long-arm jurisdiction, we must determine if the allegations of the petition give fair notice of the factual basis for long-arm jurisdiction sufficient to comply with Due Process. Is Wife's petition facially sufficient to give Husband notice of the factual basis for her assertion of long-arm jurisdiction? We hold that the petition is facially sufficient, for reasons we now explain. B. In Personam Jurisdiction ¶20 The trial court relied on Taylor v. Taylor, ¶21 In our present case, a Missouri court previously directed Husband to litigate the divorce and all other issues in Oklahoma instead of in Husband's Missouri divorce proceeding, and the Oklahoma trial court relied upon the orders of the Missouri court for exercising jurisdiction to adjudicate the personal support obligations of Husband. Wife seeks a divorce and child custody as well as a decree imposing personal monetary obligations against Husband. We are not presented with the circumstance of one spouse seeking a divisible divorce or seeking to impose personal obligations after a divisible divorce has been granted, ¶22 The Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U. S. Constitution limits the power of a state court to render a valid personal judgment against a non-resident defendant. World-Wide Volkswagen Corp. v. Woodson, ¶23 In the present cases, Husband relies on the fact of his physical presence in Missouri. He also relies upon Kulko supra, and World-Wide Volkswagen Corp., supra, for the proposition that it would be unfair for him to defend his divorce and support obligations in Oklahoma. Wife focuses on Husband's activities in Missouri that, according to her unrefuted pleadings, forced or directed her to move to Oklahoma. She distinguishes Kulko and her pleadings allege that her presence in Oklahoma did not result from her unilateral conduct and Husband's mere acquiescence, but from purposeful conduct by Husband. ¶24 Kulko was decided by the Court in 1978, during a twenty-five year period in which the Court's due process jurisprudence in the area of judicial jurisdiction was evolving substantially. In Quill Corporation v. North Dakota, ¶25 Opinions from the U. S. Supreme Court have explained in non-matrimonial disputes that when a non-resident purposefully directs activity in a state, the activity may be sufficient for the state to exercise in personam jurisdiction over the non-resident. ¶26 In our case, Wife points to Oklahoma's version of the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act (U.I.F.S.A.), We granted certiorari to address whether the trial court had jurisdiction to order child support under section 14-5-201(5) based on the Defendant's acts of domestic violence, which caused Malwitz to flee to Colorado where the child was born and now resides with Malwitz. Accepting the trial court's factual findings regarding the Defendant's abuse and harassment of Malwitz, we find that the Defendant's actions were sufficient to constitute "acts or directives" that caused Malwitz to flee Texas for Colorado within the meaning of section 14-5-201(5). We further find that, under these circumstances, the exercise of personal jurisdiction over the Defendant is consistent with due process. We therefore hold that the trial court had personal jurisdiction over the Defendant for purposes of entering a child support order. Id In Malwitz acts of abuse and harassment occurred in the State of Texas, the husband made harassing phone calls to his wife's father in Colorado, and these phone calls were for the purpose of "further harassing and intimidating " his wife and her family. Id. 99 P.3d at 58, 61. The Colorado court explained that the facts therein were similar to those in Franklin v. Virginia, 27 Va.App. 136, 497 S.E.2d 881 (1998), where in personam jurisdiction was found to exist: We find that, like the family in Franklin, the pregnant Malwitz and her daughter were effectively forced to flee Texas for Colorado by the affirmative acts of the Defendant. Although the Defendant did not specifically direct Malwitz to leave, his persistent abuse and harassment left Malwitz with little choice but to leave Texas and seek safety near her father's home in Colorado. See Id. (noting that the mother "made no such choice" to leave Africa, but was forced to Virginia because "[t]hey had to go somewhere"). Malwitz The Colorado court, noting that the husband knew that his wife's family resided in Colorado, concluded that "the Defendant knew or should have known that his actions would drive Malwitz to her father's home in Colorado." Id. 99 P.3d at 61. ¶27 In Malwitz the court noted that the abusive husband knew that the wife's only family ties were in Colorado, and that the husband should have foreseen that the abused wife would flee to the protection of her family. Malwitz, 99 P.3d at 59. The court also noted that very little time passed between the harassment and abuse and the subsequent relocation of the spouse from Texas to Colorado. Id. 93 P.3d at 61. ¶28 When we examine statutes there is a presumption that they are constitutional and we construe them, if at all possible, to be consistent with constitutional provisions. In re Baby Girl L., ¶29 We must also consider the "fair play and substantial justice" test. Due process is satisfied if a non-resident defendant has "minimum contacts" with the forum state "such that the maintenance of the suit does not offend 'traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice.' " ¶30 Here, could Husband reasonably anticipate being haled before a court in Oklahoma? The verified and uncontested allegations in Wife's pleadings are that Husband and Wife discussed separation or divorce and Husband refused to let Wife stay in their marital home in Missouri with their four-month-old child. Additionally, that Wife, with no economic means, had no choice but to move with their child into her parents' home in Oklahoma, and that Husband knew that this was her only available choice for economic support and a place to live with the assistance of her parents. She alleges that before her move to Oklahoma Husband agreed with her assisted move to Oklahoma with the child and her furniture. She also specifically alleges that Husband knew that her parents would come to Missouri to move her and their child to Oklahoma in consequence of his conduct towards Wife, and he agreed with the location to which she and the child would move. She also alleges being fearful of Husband due to his verbal abuse, threats against her person, his erratic behavior, including D.U.I. arrests, alcoholism, an instance of his breaking a locked door to gain access to her, and an instance of his falling down stairs while carrying a child. ¶31 In Malwitz, after noting that the abused spouse was directed by the acts of the abusive spouse to live in Colorado, the court noted consequences of that conduct, including the abused spouse receiving public assistance in Colorado and thereby creating a debt. Malwitz, 99 P.3d at 62-63. Malwitz also observed that "all states share a common interest in protecting victims of domestic abuse and providing an effective means for redress for such victims." Id. 93 P.3d at 63. An interest to protect children and spouses that is shared in common with other forums, whether from abuse or lack of economic support, is insufficient, by itself, to make Oklahoma a fair forum as to a nonresident. ¶32 Although acts of child and spouse abuse in one state are insufficient, by themselves, to create in personam jurisdiction over a non-resident spouse in a different state, we do agree with the Supreme Court of Colorado that affiliating circumstances such as those in Malwitz may provide the facts necessary to show that an abusive spouse is purposefully availing himself or herself of conducting activity in the forum state by directing and controlling where the abused spouse and child reside. It is alleged herein that Husband directed and controlled the location of residence by agreeing to, and desiring, that location for his family, that this location is the result of Husband's physical abuse, that this location is the result of his complete and abrupt failure of both spousal and child economic support in both Husband's state of residence and the state to which he directed and compelled them to move their residence, and that he was aware that his lack of support required this specific change in residence. ¶33 In Malwitz the wife was afforded a hearing in the trial court on the issues of fact relating to the in personam jurisdiction of a non-resident spouse. A federal court may hold an evidentiary hearing on jurisdictional issues, Federal Deposit Ins. Corp. v. Oaklawn Apartments, supra, and an Oklahoma District Court must adjudicate motions raising contested issues of fact, Crest Infiniti, II, LP v. Swinton, supra. Our Court of Civil Appeals has concluded that contested facts related to an assertion of in personam jurisdiction pursuant to § 601-201 over a non-resident spouse must be adjudicated by the trial court. Gullo v. Gullo, ¶34 Notice pleading does not require Wife to catalogue in her petition each and every fact of alleged physical and economic abuse that could be used to support an evidentiary finding and conclusion that Husband's spousal/child abuse and intentional spousal economic failure caused her and her child to reside in Oklahoma. Similarly, notice pleading does not require her to catalogue in a petition every alleged fact that could be used to support her argument that Husband directed her to move to Oklahoma, and that he used Wife's parents as agents to complete the alleged plan for his family to live in Oklahoma. We are not concerned at this time with the sufficiency of the evidence to support Wife's jurisdictional arguments, but whether the District Court was correct that Wife satisfied her pleading burden according to the record presented to us in these extraordinary writ proceedings and the burden of the petitioner (Husband) herein to show that Wife failed her notice-pleading burden in the District Court. Whether Wife's allegations are indeed the facts present in the cases before us today is a question we may not reach in advance of the parties litigating the actual existence of such facts in the District Court. ¶35 The trial court's order in FD-2008-983 determined that the trial court possessed, in fact, in personam jurisdiction when the Husband's challenge presented only the narrower issue of the sufficiency of Wife's petition, as amended. Prohibition hereby issues (1) to prevent enforcement of the order of the District Court in FD-2008-983 which sustained a motion for reconsideration and determined jurisdiction respecting divorce and all related issues, and (2) to direct the District Court that it must provide a full and fair opportunity for parties to present any evidence on the issue of in personam jurisdiction for the trier of fact to determine that issue consistent with this opinion. We hold that the allegations of Wife's petition, as amended, in FD-2008-983 are sufficient to give notice of the grounds upon which the trial court's jurisdiction depends and the allegations thus satisfy Wife's notice-pleading burden. Thus, we grant prohibition in part, that is to prevent enforcement of the specific order challenged herein; and we also deny prohibition in part, with respect to Husband's claim that the trial court record is insufficient, according to a notice-pleading burden, to show in personam jurisdiction over Husband based upon the petition's allegations. ¶36 In summary, we conclude that allegations of spousal/child physical abuse and intentional spousal failure of economic support combined with allegations of a non-resident's spouse's agreement and purposeful conduct for the location of the residence of the other spouse and their child may be used pursuant to ¶ 37 EDMONDSON, C.J., TAYLOR, V.C.J., HARGRAVE, WATT, WINCHESTER, COLBERT, REIF, JJ., Concur. ¶ 38 OPALA, KAUGER, JJ., Concur in result. FOOT