Opinion ID: 2232184
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: 165 Lawfulness of Order Disobeyed.

Text: Sec. 256.03, Stats., provides in part as follows: Every court of record shall have power to punish, as for a criminal contempt, persons guilty of either of the following acts and no other: (3) Wilful disobedience of any process or order lawfully issued or made by it. We consider sub. (3) of sec. 256.03, Stats., to be but a codification of the common law. The universal rule is that the failure of a person to obey an order that is void for want of jurisdiction in the issuing court is not punishable as contempt. State v. Marcus (1951), 259 Wis. 543, 553, 49 N. W. (2d) 447; Seyfert v. Seyfert (1930), 201 Wis. 223, 229, 229 N. W. 636; 12 Am. Jur., Contempt, p. 406, sec. 24; 17 C. J. S., Contempt, p. 19, sec. 14; Anno. 12 A. L. R. (2d) 1059, 1067. Want of jurisdiction to act means a lack of jurisdiction to act at all in a given situation or with reference to a certain subject matter. Seyfert v. Seyfert, supra, at page 228. On the other hand, disobedience of an order made by a court within its jurisdiction and power is a contempt, although the order may be clearly erroneous. Wisconsin E. R. Board v. Milk & Ice Cream Drivers & Dairy Employees Union (1941), 238 Wis. 379, 400, 299 N. W. 31; State ex rel. Attorney General v. Fasekas (1937), 223 Wis. 356, 358, 269 N. W. 700; State ex rel. Fowler v. Circuit Court (1898), 98 Wis. 143, 156, 73 N. W. 788; 17 C. J. S., Contempt, p. 21, sec. 14; Anno. 12 A. L. R. (2d) 1059, 1107. For a discussion of the distinction between a merely erroneous order and one void because of lack of jurisdiction of the court over the subject matter, see Cline v. Whitaker (1911), 144 Wis. 439, 442, 129 N. W. 400. Whether the instant order of September 7th was void for lack of jurisdiction of the court over the subject matter is  not contingent upon whether the court had jurisdiction to adjudge the temporary custody of the two children during the pendency of the trial of the divorce action. The court clearly had this power under sec. 247.23 (1), Stats. Rather, the test is whether the court had any jurisdiction over the operation of the Home which would enable it to order the Home and its superintendent to accept temporary custody of the children. For the circuit court to have power to order a public agency, such as the Home, to accept custody of children presently under the jurisdiction of the court there must exist either, (1) a statute granting this power to the court; or (2) a statute which imposes upon the public agency the duty to accept such custody. We are unable to find any statute either empowering the court to require the Home to accept temporary custody of the two children, or making it the duty of the Home to accept temporary custody if so ordered by a court. Sec. 247.24, Stats., empowers a court, in rendering a judgment of annulment, divorce, or legal separation, to declare a child of the parties, under certain prescribed conditions, to be a dependent and give the care and custody of such child to a relative (as defined in ch. 48, Stats.) of the child, a county agency specified in sec. 48.56 (1), a licensed child-welfare agency, or the state department of public welfare. In counties with a population of 500,000 or more, of which Milwaukee county is the only one, sec. 48.56 (1) (c) specifies that child-welfare service is to be provided by a county welfare department organized under sec. 49.51. Under this statute, this department is under the jurisdiction of the county board of public welfare. Sub. (2) (c) of sec. 46.21 requires this board to appoint a director of institutions and departments, and sub. (2) (a) of this statute places the operation of the Home and other enumerated county institutions in the board acting through the director of institutions  and departments. Ramsay is not the director of institutions and departments but only the superintendent of the Home. Thus, the circuit court, in entering a judgment of divorce, would have no power under sec. 247.24 to award custody of the children to the Home, although it would be empowered to award such custody to the department. The department in turn would have authority, in its discretion, to place the children in licensed foster homes, to contract for their care by licensed child-welfare agencies, or to place them in the Home. Sub. (1) (c) and (e) of sec. 48.57. Sec. 247.23 (1), Stats., which authorizes the court during the pendency of a divorce action to provide by order for the temporary custody of children of the parties, unlike sec. 247.24, does not spell out the persons and agencies to whom the court may award such custody. It merely authorizes the court to make such a temporary custody order as in its discretion shall be deemed just and reasonable. While sec. 247.23 (1) may grant broader custody powers to the court than sec. 247.24, the court cannot compel any agency, public or private, to accept such awarded custody against the will of those charged with the administration of the agency, absent some specific statute so requiring. However, we deem that secs. 247.23 (1) and 247.24 must be read together so that both the Milwaukee county department of public welfare and the state department of public welfare would be required to accept temporary custody of children of parents who are parties to a pending divorce action, if ordered to do so by the court in which the action was pending. Both the trial court, at the hearing of September 9th, and the state, on this appeal, have contended that sec. 48.58 (1), Stats., made it mandatory upon the Home to accept temporary custody of the two children as directed by the September 7th order. This statute provides:  Any existing county children's home may do any of the following: (a) Accept legal custody of dependent or neglected children transferred to it by the children's court; (b) Provide care for dependent or neglected children referred by the county welfare department; (c) Provide temporary shelter care for dependent or neglected children. Nothing that the statute uses the word may, rather than shall, we see no necessity for construing it as mandatory in character. Par. (c) would have authorized the Home in its discretion to accept the temporary custody of the children covered by the September 7th order but did not compel it to do so in the absence of some other express statutory provision authorizing the court to place temporary custody in the Home. If the order had awarded temporary custody to the department, the director of institutions and departments, in his discretion, could have placed the children in the Home and the Home would have been obligated to accept them. This is because of the previously mentioned provision of sec. 46.21 (2) (a), Stats. It has been urged that the circuit court was faced with an emergency and that this justified both the order of September 7th and the refusal to grant Ramsay an adjournment on September 9th unless he would in the meantime comply with the order. We doubt that the circuit court has the power, even in an emergency, to invade the field of the administration of county institutions and to bypass the department. However, that there was no emergency which required such action is demonstrated by the fact that in March the department had accepted temporary custody of the two Bowser boys, and again on September 12th the court adjudged custody of Ralph and Delores in the department when it dismissed the complaint in the divorce action. It is our considered judgment that the circuit court was without power to order that the Home and Ramsay, its  superintendent, accept custody of Ralph and Delores Bowser. Such order, in so far as it applied to the Home and Ramsay, was void. Therefore, no contempt was committed by Ramsay in refusing to obey the order. By the Court. Judgment reversed, with directions to dismiss the proceeding.