Opinion ID: 457731
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Res Judicata Effect of Order Under Texas Law

Text: 46 The judgments of state courts are afforded the same preclusive effect in the federal courts to which they would be entitled in the courts of the state in which they were entered. 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1738. Thus, if a state court judgment is subject to collateral attack in the state that rendered it, the judgment may be collaterally attacked in federal court. Fehlhaber v. Fehlhaber, 681 F.2d 1015, 1020 (5th Cir. Unit B 1982) (footnote omitted), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 104 S.Ct. 79, 78 L.Ed.2d 90 (1983). To resolve this issue, we must undertake a two-step inquiry. First, we must determine whether the type of order in question would have preclusive effect under Texas law. Since we resolve that question in the affirmative, we must then consider whether the arguments asserted by plaintiff would be a valid basis for collateral attack in another Texas proceeding. 47 The order specifically recites that it was agreed to by the parties in open court. Under Texas law, an agreed judgment is accorded the same degree of finality and binding force as a final judgment rendered at the conclusion of an adversary proceeding. McCray v. McCray, 584 S.W.2d 279, 281 (Tex.1979) (citing Pollard v. Steffens, 161 Tex. 594, 343 S.W.2d 234, 239 (1961); see Ex Parte Gorena, 595 S.W.2d 841, 844 (Tex.1979); Hill v. Hill, 599 S.W.2d 691, 692 (Tex.Civ.App.1980); Sawyer v. Smith, 552 S.W.2d 936, 940 (Tex.Civ.App.1977); Black v. Wilemon, 539 S.W.2d 203, 204 (Tex.Civ.App.1976); Ranger Insurance Co. v. Rogers, 530 S.W.2d 162, 166-67 (Tex.Civ.App.1975); Sun Life Assurance Co. v. Clyce, 512 F.Supp. 430, 433 (N.D.Tex.1980). 48 As a general rule, nonfinal orders or judgments are not entitled to full faith and credit. Aiello v. City of Wilmington, 470 F.Supp. 414, 419 (D.Del.1979), aff'd, 623 F.2d 845 (3d Cir.1980). See generally 18 C. Wright, A. Miller & E. Cooper, Federal Practice and Procedure: Jurisdiction Sec. 4432 (1981) [hereinafter cited as Wright]. For this reason, custody decrees in general, and the Amended Temporary Orders at issue in particular, present difficult problems in the application of full faith and credit principles. Insofar as a custody decree is modifiable in the rendering state, full faith and credit would not prevent it from being modified in some other forum state as well. Flood v. Braaten, 727 F.2d 303, 308-09 (3d Cir.1984). Thus, full faith and credit cannot readily be applied to custody decrees because federal courts may only enforce final state decrees that are no longer subject to modification, and the general rule is that such decrees are not subject to full faith and credit. McDougald v. Jenson, 596 F.Supp. 680, 685 (N.D.Fla.1984). 49 In this case, however, we conclude that the portion of the state court order providing for dismissal of plaintiff's case is entitled to full faith and credit. First, we note that finality for the full faith and credit purposes is not equivalent to finality for the purposes of appeal. Aiello, 470 F.Supp. at 419 (citing cases). See generally 18 Wright, supra, at Secs. 4432, 4434. Plaintiff's purported agreement to dismiss her federal suit is divisible from the ultimate disposition by the court of the question of custody, and in a practical and logical sense is final. Second, Texas law accords the same preclusive effect to agreed interlocutory judgments that it does to agreed final judgments. Gregory v. White, 604 S.W.2d 402, 403-04 (Tex.Civ.App.1980), cert. denied, 452 U.S. 939, 101 S.Ct. 308, 69 L.Ed.2d 953 (1981). 50 Consequently, we must address whether plaintiff would be entitled under Texas law to collaterally attack the order in a separate proceeding. She asserts two possible grounds for collateral attack. The first, that she never agreed to the portion of the order directing dismissal of her federal case, is addressed and rejected below. The second, that the order was void for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, is considered in the section following. 51 Although an agreed judgment is accorded the same finality under Texas law as a final judgment rendered at the conclusion of an adversary proceeding, it must be interpreted as a contract to which the rules governing contract interpretation apply. McCray, 584 S.W.2d at 281; Browning v. Holloway, 620 S.W.2d 611, 614-15 (Tex.Civ.App.1981); Black, 539 S.W.2d at 204; accord Echols v. Nimmo, 586 F.Supp. 467, 469 (W.D.Mich.1984). A valid consent judgment cannot be rendered by a court absent the agreement of all parties thereto, Grasso v. Ellis, 608 S.W.2d 347, 349 (Tex.Civ.App.1980); Gregory, 604 S.W.2d at 403; Sawyer, 552 S.W.2d at 939, and must strictly conform to the agreed upon terms, Grasso, 608 S.W.2d at 349; Sun Life, 512 F.Supp. at 433. However, if a party to the cause wishes to contend that he did not in fact agree to the judgment, he must do so by a direct attack upon the judgment and cannot do so in a collateral proceeding. Sawyer, 552 S.W.2d at 939-40 (emphasis added).B. Subject Matter Jurisdiction 52 A judgment may be subject to collateral attack on the ground that the rendering court lacked jurisdiction or capacity to act as a court. Ranger Insurance, 530 S.W.2d at 167; H.C. Price Co. v. Compass Insurance Co., 483 F.Supp. 171, 174 n. 3 (N.D.Tex.1980). It is well-settled, however, that full faith and credit extends to state court determinations of subject matter jurisdiction over a controversy, as well as the merits of the controversy itself. See Durfee v. Duke, 375 U.S. 106, 84 S.Ct. 242, 11 L.Ed.2d 186 (1963); Nagle v. Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Combined Shows, Inc., 386 F.Supp. 349, 358 (S.D.Tex.1974). Both Texas and federal authorities recognize that only void judgments as opposed to voidable judgments may be collaterally attacked, and that only judgments which show a jurisdictional defect on the face of the record are classified as void judgments. Little v. Celebrezze, 259 F.Supp. 9, 11 (N.D.Tex.1966). 53 The distinction between void and voidable judgments was elaborated in Lubben v. Selective Service System Local Board No. 27, 453 F.2d 645 (1st Cir.1972): 54 A void judgment is to be distinguished from an erroneous one, in that the latter is subject only to direct attack. A void judgment is one which, from its inception, was a complete nullity and without legal effect. In the interest of finality, the concept of void judgments is narrowly construed. While absence of subject matter jurisdiction may make a judgment void, such total want of jurisdiction must be distinguished from an error in the exercise of jurisdiction. A court has the power to determine its own jurisdiction, and an error in that determination will not render the judgment void. Only in the rare instance of a clear usurpation of power will a judgment be rendered void. 55 453 F.2d at 649 (footnotes omitted); accord Coleman v. Court of Appeals, Division No. 2, 550 F.Supp. 681, 684 (W.D.Okla.1980); Hobbs v. United States Office of Personnel, 485 F.Supp. 456, 458 (M.D.Fla.1980). 56 Plaintiff's argument is that the Dallas County court lacked subject matter jurisdiction 13 under the terms of the PKPA and Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act (UCCJA), Tex.Fam.Code Secs. 11.51-11.75, which became effective September 1, 1983, the day before Stephen filed his petition with the court to amend the orders of custody. She contends that by virtue of these statutes, Tennessee had become the home state of the children. 14 As adopted by Texas, Sec. 11.53(d) of the UCCJA provides: Except on written agreement of all the parties, a court may not exercise its continuing jurisdiction to modify custody if the child and the party with custody have established another home state unless the action to modify was filed before the new home state was acquired. See Heartfield v. Heartfield, 749 F.2d 1138, 1141-42 (5th Cir.1985). 15 Hence, she concludes, the court acted without subject matter jurisdiction and the order in question is void and subject to collateral attack. 57 While the Dallas County court may have erred in determining that it retained continuing jurisdiction to modify custody pursuant to Stephen's petition, applying the principles enunciated above, this error would merely render the order in question voidable, but not void. The court certainly had potential jurisdiction over the dispute. 58 If a court having potential jurisdiction renders a judgment when the potential jurisdiction has not been activated, and the defect is apparent from the face of the judgment, then the judgment is void and subject to either direct or collateral attack. Fulton v. Finch, 162 Tex. 351, 346 S.W.2d 823 (1961). If ... the court having potential jurisdiction renders a judgment regular on its face that contains recitations stating that potential jurisdiction has been activated, ... then the judgment is voidable, not void, and may be set aside only by a direct attack. Akers v. Simpson, 445 S.W.2d 957 (Tex.1969). The latter result is because a court of potential jurisdiction has the power to determine whether its jurisdiction has been activated, and the recitations making that determination are immune from attack in a collateral proceeding. 59 Waldron v. Waldron, 614 S.W.2d 648, 650 (Tex.Civ.App.1981); see also Cavazos v. Hancock, 686 S.W.2d 284, 286-87 (Tex.App.1985). An error in interpreting a statutory grant of jurisdiction is not ... equivalent to acting with total want of jurisdiction and does not render the judgment a complete nullity. Jones v. Giles, 741 F.2d 245, 248 (9th Cir.1984); see also Coleman, 550 F.Supp. at 685. We conclude that under Texas law, the portion of the order in question directing dismissal by plaintiff of the instant case is entitled to preclusive effect and not subject to collateral attack. 60 C. Policy-Based Exceptions to the Operation of Sec. 1738 61 In exceptional cases, certain courts have held that full faith and credit will not be accorded state court judgments regular on their face, where to do so would defeat a vital and overriding federal interest. See, e.g., Red Fox v. Red Fox, 564 F.2d 361, 365 n. 3 (9th Cir.1977); American Mannex Corp. v. Rozands, 462 F.2d 688, 690 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 409 U.S. 1040, 93 S.Ct. 524, 34 L.Ed.2d 489 (1972); 18 Wright, supra, Sec. 4469, at 662-63. Plaintiff contends that if full faith and credit is given to the Dallas County state court order in this instance, it would be tantamount to permitting a kidnapper to obtain ransom for the return of her abducted children, and would defeat the specific purpose of Congress in passing the PKPA to deter interstate abductions and other unilateral removals of children undertaken to obtain custody and visitation awards. See note 6 supra. 62 We are not insensitive to plaintiff's argument. Nevertheless, we do not feel that a judicially created exception to the operation of Sec. 1738 is appropriate in this situation. 63 We find the PKPA inapposite. As we have stated, plaintiff's cause of action is not grounded in that statute, but in the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. As far as this Court is aware, plaintiff has not attempted to avoid the assertion of jurisdiction by the State of Texas by filing a petition for custody in Tennessee. Federal jurisdiction under the PKPA, i.e., a federal interest, does not arise until the courts of two different states have entered conflicting custody decrees. See Heartfield, 749 F.2d at 1143. 64 As far as the federal interest in protection of civil rights, the Supreme Court has held that full faith and credit principles apply with equal force in Sec. 1983 as in other causes of action brought in the federal courts. Allen v. McCurry, 449 U.S. 90, 101 S.Ct. 411, 66 L.Ed.2d 308 (1980); Migra v. Warren City School District Board of Education, 465 U.S. 75, 104 S.Ct. 892, 79 L.Ed.2d 56 (1984). 65 Finally, counsel has emphasized that for economic reasons plaintiff was forced to appear at the October 11 hearing in the Dallas County court without representation. The Supreme Court has held that the Constitution does not require the appointment of counsel for indigent parents in every parental status termination proceeding. Lassiter v. Department of Social Services, 452 U.S. 18, 101 S.Ct. 2153, 68 L.Ed.2d 640 (1981). In light of Lassiter, we do not regard the fact that plaintiff was unrepresented at the state court hearing as a sufficient basis upon which to create an exception to the requirement that we give full faith and credit to the state court order in question. Disposition of Plaintiff's Claim on Remand 66 Although we have held that the order in question is entitled to full faith and credit and not subject to collateral attack, this holding is relevant only to the Hooks defendants, Mullins and Churchill, as the order only directs dismissal of plaintiff's federal case against these defendants. Therefore, we must remand to the District Court for further proceedings. On remand, the court is directed to allow plaintiff a reasonable time within which to initiate a review of the contested portion of the Dallas County court's order in the state courts in Texas. 16 If such a proceeding is initiated, the District Court should hold her claim against Stephen Hooks in abeyance pending resolution of her challenge to the validity of the order in question. Should the plaintiff choose not to initiate such a proceeding, or fail to do so within the time specified by the District Court, the Court is directed to dismiss her claim against Stephen Hooks and proceed on her claims against the Blount County Sheriff's Department defendants and defendant Cornett. The portions of the District Court order dismissing the claims against defendants Charlotte and Bill Hooks, Mullins and Churchill are affirmed. 67 IT IS SO ORDERED. 68