Opinion ID: 876901
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Personal Jurisdiction Over the Father.

Text: The District Court, on July 1, 1975, obtained personal jurisdiction over the mother and Bridges by personal service of process in California. Efforts by the Los Angeles County sheriff's department to serve process on the father were unsuccessful. Thus, the father contends that he was not subject to the District Court's jurisdiction. He contends further that his appearance at the hearing on plaintiffs' petition did not serve to confer the court with in personam jurisdiction over him. Montana's Rule 4B(2), M.R.Civ.P., which has no counterpart in the federal rules of civil procedure provides that a court obtains in personam jurisdiction over a person when that person voluntarily appears: Jurisdiction may be acquired by our courts over any person through service of process as herein provided; or by the voluntary appearance in an action by any person either personally, or through an attorney, or through any other authorized officer, agent or employee. (Emphasis added.) Additionally, courts and commentators are quite willing to distinguish child custody cases in which courts act as arbiters between disputing parents from dependent and neglect and abuse cases when the court stands as parens patriae seeking to assist the welfare of the abused, abandoned, or neglected child. H. Clark, Law of Domestic Relations, § 18.2 at 610-11 (1968); Hazard, May v. Anderson: Preamble to Family Law Chaos, 45 Va.L.Rev. 379, 398, 404 (1959); Currie, Justice Traynor and the Conflict of Laws, 13 Stan.L.Rev. 719, 768 (1961). As declared by the Arizona Court of Appeals in a recent termination of parental rights decision: ... when the issue is primarily between the state in its parens patriae capacity and an absent non-consenting spouse, the state is justified in providing for effective termination proceedings, even in the absence of in personam jurisdiction over a non-consenting parent. In re Appeal in Maricopa County, Juvenile Action No. JS-734 (1975), 25 Ariz. App. 333, 543 P.2d 454, 459. In light of the weight of authority, we must agree that personal jurisdiction over a parent is not necessary to the termination of his parental rights to a minor child, so long as the parent has actual notice of the termination proceedings or the District Court, under Rule 4D, M.R.Civ.P., makes an effort reasonably calculated to provide notice to the parent. See, Commissioners' Note, Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act, Section 13, 9 Uniform Laws Annot. 121 (1973) (Personal jurisdiction over the father is not required ... The Act emphasizes the need for the personal appearance of the contestants rather than any technical requirement for personal jurisdiction.); Armstrong v. Manzo (1965), 380 U.S. 545, 549-50, 85 S.Ct. 1187, 1190-91, 14 L.Ed.2d 62, 65-66; Restatement (Second) of Conflict of Laws § 69 (1971). In the case of out-of-state parents, see Section 5 of the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act, section 40-7-106 MCA.