Opinion ID: 753734
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Domestic Relations Exception

Text: 63 The district began by noting that federal courts have declined to exercise jurisdiction over domestic matters where jurisdiction is based on diversity, and that the same principle has been applied to federal question jurisdiction. The court cited numerous cases that set forth these concepts, among them Firestone v. Cleveland Trust, 654 F.2d 1212 (6th Cir.1981), where we discussed the theory as follows: 64 Although a domestic relations case may meet the technical requirements for diversity jurisdiction, federal courts traditionally have refrained from exercising jurisdiction over cases which in essence are domestic relations disputes. Even when brought under the guise of a federal question action, a suit whose substance is domestic relations generally will not be entertained in a federal court. 65 Valid reasons have been given in support of federal courts abstaining from exercising jurisdiction over domestic relations cases. The field of domestic relations involves local problems peculiarly suited to state regulation and control, and peculiarly unsuited to control by federal courts. The whole subject of the domestic relations of husband and wife, parent and child, belongs to the laws of the states and not to the laws of the United States. Because state courts historically have decided these matters, they have developed a proficiency and expertise in these cases and a strong interest in disposing of them. Some states now have specialized courts which adjudicate only domestic relations cases and are better suited to process the large volume of such cases. 66 . . . . . 67 [When considering whether to abstain in a domestic relations case, it] is incumbent upon the district court to sift through the claims of the complaint to determine the true character of the dispute to be adjudicated. The mere obtaining of a divorce decree, without more, does not remove the case from the arena of domestic relations and permit the intervention of federal courts to adjudicate issues unaffected by the decree. 68 Id. at 1215-16 (citations omitted). 69 Although that sounds clear enough, in truth the domestic relations exception to federal jurisdiction is not the most coherent of doctrines. Such might be expected from the incongruous bases on which it stands: unsupported dictum in the majority opinion, 12 and losing arguments in the dissent, 13 in the case of Barber v. Barber, 62 U.S. (21 How.) 582, 16 L.Ed. 226 (1858). In its sporadic revisitations of the doctrine, the Supreme Court endowed it with varying degrees of force, and justified it with an assortment of rationales, some constitutional, some prudential, and some statutory. See generally Michael Ashley Stein, The Domestic Relations Exception to Federal Jurisdiction: Rethinking an Unsettled Federal Courts Doctrine, 36 B.C.L. REV. 669 (1995). Not surprisingly, the lower courts have disagreed on the precise nature of this doctrine. Application has been particularly variegated because courts face so many different questions under the heading of domestic relations, including the declaration of marital and parental statuses, assignment of rights and obligations pertaining to those statuses, enforcement of those rights and obligations, adjudications of torts alleged to have been committed in connection with those rights, and adjudication of constitutional affronts in connection with the declaration of status or with awarded rights. See id., 62 U.S. (21 How.) at 669-70. While the federal courts have almost unanimously invoked the doctrine to the core issue of declaring marital or parental status, [b]eyond this initial agreement ... the approach taken by federal courts to non-core actions may most charitably be described as chaotic. Id., 62 U.S. (21 How.) at 679. In our case, the district court held: 70 In the present case, the gravamen of Plaintiffs' claim is that they were denied due process during the Arizona Court's proceedings, which led to the divorce decree of March 14, 1995. Although Plaintiffs have characterized their claims as alleged constitutional violations, the relief sought is to void the Arizona state court decrees mentioned above, which, among other things, voided a prior Ohio divorce decree, granted a separate divorce, along with child custody, alimony and child support to Defendant Chalker, and transferred his assets to her. Said relief directly implicates the aforementioned principles of comity. Plaintiffs request that the Court declare the dissolution decree entered by the Arizona Court invalid. Any such finding by this Court would necessarily involve the Court in the core of a domestic relations dispute between husband and wife seeking to obtain a declaration of their marital status, a declaration of rights or obligations arising from said marital status, and to enforce that declaration of status, rights, or obligations. This Court's adjudication of [Plaintiff's] claims will directly impact the marriage status and rights between the husband Plaintiff and his wife.... Traditionally, marriage, divorce, child custody, support payments and division of marital assets are uniquely state matters which involve distinct issues of state law. 71 The potential for impermissible interference in state domestic matters is particularly strong under the facts of this case because any ruling by the Court would necessarily affect the Arizona state court custody determination. 72 Mem. Op. at 8-9. 73 Our disagreement with the district court comes down to the question of whether Catz's action is a core domestic relations case, seeking a declaration of marital or parental status, or a constitutional claim in which it is incidental that the underlying dispute involves a divorce. We conclude that the case is best described as the latter. True, the remedy Catz seeks--a declaration that the Pima County divorce decree is void as a violation of due process--would seem to directly impact the marriage status and rights between the husband Plaintiff and his wife. On the other hand, if the divorce judgment were unconstitutionally obtained, it should be regarded as a nullity, see Phoenix Metals Corp. v. Roth, 79 Ariz. 106, 284 P.2d 645, 648 (1955), and any decree so stating would change nothing at all. Further, the declaration Catz seeks would not itself address the merits, or ultimately dispose, of Chalker's divorce petition; she would be free to relitigate her marital status in state court. Finally, Catz is not asking the district court to involve itself in the sort of questions attendant to domestic relations that are assumed to be within the special expertise of the state courts--for instance, the merits of a divorce action; what custody determination would be in the best interest of a child; what would constitute an equitable division of property; and the like. Instead, Catz asks the court to examine whether certain judicial proceedings, which happened to involve a divorce, comported with the federal constitutional guarantee of due process. This is a sphere in which the federal courts may claim an expertise at least equal to that of the state courts. 74 Our conclusion that the domestic relations exception ought not to apply here finds support in the Supreme Court's latest announcement on the subject, Ankenbrandt v. Richards, 504 U.S. 689, 112 S.Ct. 2206, 119 L.Ed.2d 468 (1992). There, the Court (impressed that the doctrine's pedigree, though dubious, was certainly very old; and supposing that the jurisdictional limit had been ratified by Congressional silence) reaffirmed the existence of the doctrine, but gave it narrow scope: 75 We conclude, therefore, that the domestic relations exception, as articulated by this Court since Barber, divests the federal courts of power to issue divorce, alimony, and child custody decrees.... 76 By concluding, as we do, that the domestic relations exception encompasses only cases involving the issuance of a divorce, alimony, or child custody decree, we necessarily find that the Court of Appeals erred by affirming the District Court's invocation of this exception. This lawsuit in no way seeks such a decree; rather, it alleges that respondents ... committed torts against ... Ankenbrandt's children.... Federal subject-matter jurisdiction pursuant to § 1332 thus is proper in this case. 77 Id. at 703-04, 112 S.Ct. at 2215. The Court also noted that [t]he better reasoned views among the Courts of Appeals have similarly stated the domestic relations exception as narrowly confined to suits for divorce, alimony, or child custody decrees. Id. at 703 n. 6, 112 S.Ct. at 2215 n. 6. 78 We take this language to mean, plainly enough, that the domestic relations exception applies only where a plaintiff positively sues in federal court for divorce, alimony, or child custody. 14 This is simply not such a lawsuit. Nor is it made so by the fact that the suit, if successful, would alter the parties' status, rights, and obligations, as they had been most recently determined by the Pima County court. (The district court distinguished Ankenbrandt by reasoning that the plaintiff's claim in that case would have had no such effect; we do not think this factual distinction avoids the clear language of Ankenbrandt.) Therefore, we cannot accept the first basis offered by the district court for refusing to assume jurisdiction. 15 B. Rooker-Feldman Doctrine The district court next held that: 79 [i]n addition to the fact that the domestic relations exception and the accompanying comity principles warrant dismissal, it is clear that the Court does not have jurisdiction under the Rooker-Feldman doctrine, [which] was developed from two Supreme Court cases, Rooker v. Fidelity Trust Co., 263 U.S. 413, 44 S.Ct. 149, 68 L.Ed. 362 (1923) and District of Columbia Court of Appeals v. Feldman, 460 U.S. 462, 103 S.Ct. 1303, 75 L.Ed.2d 206 (1983). In each case, the Supreme Court considered whether a federal district court could exercise jurisdiction to determine the validity of a state court judgment. The Supreme Court held federal district courts do not have jurisdiction ... over challenges to state court decisions in particular cases arising out of judicial proceedings even if those challenges allege that the state court's action was unconstitutional. Review of those decisions may be had only in [the United States Supreme Court]. Feldman, 460 U.S. at 486, 103 S.Ct. at 1317 (citing 28 U.S.C. § 1257). 80 Mem. Op. at 12 (alterations in original). 81 The court analyzed two elements implicated in the potential operation of this jurisdictional rule. First, [i]n order for the Rooker-Feldman doctrine to apply to a claim presented in federal district court, the issue before the Court must be ['inextricably intertwined'] with the claim asserted in the state court proceeding. Mem. Op. at 14 (citing Keene Corp. v. Cass, 908 F.2d 293, 296 (8th Cir.1990)). The Keene decision goes on to say: 82 Under the Feldman doctrine, 83 the federal claim is inextricably intertwined with the state-court judgment if the federal claim succeeds only to the extent that the state court wrongly decided the issues before it. Where federal relief can only be predicated upon a conviction that the state court was wrong, it is difficult to conceive the federal proceeding as, in substance, anything other than a prohibited appeal of the state-court judgment. 84 908 F.2d at 296-97 (quoting Pennzoil Co. v. Texaco, Inc., 481 U.S. 1, 25, 107 S.Ct. 1519, 1533, 95 L.Ed.2d 1 (1987))(Marshall, J., concurring). 85 The second element is the requirement that the action brought in the district court be a general challenge to the constitutionality of the state law applied in the state action, rather than a specific grievance that the law was invalidly--even unconstitutionally--applied in the plaintiff's particular case. This element is found in Feldman, where the plaintiff challenged as unconstitutional the District of Columbia's rules for admission to the bar. The Court discussed 86 the distinction between general challenges to state bar admission rules and claims that a state court has unlawfully denied a particular applicant admission. We have recognized that state supreme courts may act in a non-judicial capacity in promulgating rules regulating the bar.... Challenges to the constitutionality of state bar rules, therefore, do not necessarily require a United States District Court to review a final state court judgment in a judicial proceeding. Instead, the District Court may simply be asked to assess the validity of a rule promulgated in a non-judicial proceeding. If this is the case, the District Court is not reviewing a state court judicial decision. In this regard, 28 U.S.C. § 1257 does not act as a bar to the District Court's consideration of the case and because the proceedings giving rise to the rule are non-judicial the policies prohibiting United States District Court review of final state court judgments are not implicated. United States District Courts, therefore, have subject matter jurisdiction over general challenges to state bar rules, promulgated by state courts in non-judicial proceedings, which do not require review of a final state court judgment in a particular case. They do not have jurisdiction, however, over challenges to state court decisions in particular cases arising out of judicial proceedings even if those challenges allege that the state court's action was unconstitutional. Review of those decisions may be had only in this Court. 28 U.S.C. § 1257. 87 460 U.S. at 485-86, 103 S.Ct. at 1316-17 (emphasis added). 88 The district court found that Catz's claim was both inextricably intertwined with the judgment of the Pima County Superior Court in Chalker's divorce action, and was a specific grievance, rather than a general challenge, to any state law implicated therein. 89 In our view, the district court erred in holding that Catz's lawsuit (at least the due-process claims that survive the claim preclusion effect of the judgment in the second Arizona federal case, as discussed in Part III, supra ) is inextricably intertwined with the Arizona divorce judgment. Catz's due process allegation does not implicate the merits of the divorce decree, only the procedures leading up to it. 16 For him to seek federal relief on this score need not be predicated upon a conviction that the state court was wrong on the merits. Keene, supra, at 297. And, as we pointed out above, relief for Catz's due-process claim would not consist of a conflicting judgment on the merits; if the court were to declare the Pima County decision void as having been secured in violation of due process, that would not itself prevent Chalker from resuming or refiling her divorce action, nor prevent the Pima County Court from coming to the same conclusion under constitutional procedures. 90 We agree with the district court, however, that Catz's lawsuit is a specific grievance, rather than a general challenge. His complaint alleges: 91 The manner in which the Arizona state court proceeding was conducted, resulting in a coerced and involuntary entry of the final decree of dissolution by default, deprived the Plaintiffs of a full and fair opportunity to be heard on all claims adjudicated on March 14, 1995, and resulted in the taking and transfer of accounts in the custody and possession of Defendant financial institutions and titled in the name of Plaintiffs by denying them an opportunity to be heard. Furthermore, Plaintiffs, Shawn D. Catz and Jason A. Catz, were never named or joined as parties in the Arizona proceeding, served with a summons and complaint, a temporary restraining order, or the final judgment awarding assets titled to them to Defendant Chalker. 92 Amended Compl. p 14. 93 Nowhere in the complaint does Catz make a general constitutional challenge to any specific Arizona law or rule of procedure; he simply attacks as unconstitutional the manner in which the Arizona state court proceeding was conducted (emphasis added). However, we believe that the cases stating that, to avoid the reach of the Rooker-Feldman doctrine, a case must represent a general challenge rather than a specific grievance do so in the context of a direct attack on the substance of the state court decision. Here, the claims that survive claim preclusion, as outlined above, are directed to the procedures used by the Arizona court, procedures that Judge Echols found, if true, to be shocking. (J.A. (II) at 154 n.7). Thus, permitting jurisdiction in this case does not contravene the heart of the Rooker-Feldman doctrine, the prohibition of reviewing the substance of state court judgments. See Sun Valley Foods Co. v. Detroit Marine Terminals, Inc., 801 F.2d 186, 188-89 (6th Cir.1986). There, we noted that although a district court 94 has no authority to review final judgments of a state court in judicial proceedings, Feldman, 460 U.S. at 482[, 103 S.Ct. at 1315], ... [a] federal court may entertain a collateral attack on a state court judgment which is alleged to have been procured through fraud, deception, accident, or mistake.... Resolute Insurance Co. v. State of North Carolina, 397 F.2d 586, 589 (4th Cir.1968). 95 Sun Valley, 801 F.2d at 189. See also Lewis v. East Feliciana Parish Sch. Bd., 820 F.2d 143, 146 (5th Cir.1987) (due process challenge to state proceedings not barred by Feldman doctrine, though res judicata may apply). 96 The Supreme Court also recently tiptoed around the edges of the doctrine in Pennzoil Co. v. Texaco, Inc., 481 U.S. 1, 107 S.Ct. 1519, 95 L.Ed.2d 1. The Second Circuit, 784 F.2d 1133, 1144 (2d Cir.1986), had held that Rooker does not bar a federal court from exercising jurisdiction over claims that certain state provisions deny Texaco due process and equal protection as applied. Those claims have never been presented to or adjudicated by a state court. Nor are they 'inextricably intertwined' with the barred claims. Once the claims that are barred by claim preclusion are excised from this case, exactly the same can be said of Catz's challenge here. The Supreme Court did not specifically rule on the Second Circuit's holding, although it was supported in a series of individual concurrences. See 481 U.S. at 18, 107 S.Ct. at 1529-30 (Justices Scalia and O'Connor); id. at 21, 107 S.Ct. at 1531 (Justices Brennan and Marshall); id. at 27-28, 107 S.Ct. at 1534-35 (Justice Blackmun); id. at 31 n. 3, 107 S.Ct. at 1536 n. 3 (Justices Stevens and Marshall). See RICHARD H. FALLON, JR., ET AL., HART & WECHSLER'S THE FEDERAL COURTS AND THE FEDERAL SYSTEM 1504 (4th ed. 1996) ([A] majority of the Justices explicitly rejected Pennzoil's argument that the rationale of the Rooker-Feldman doctrine, properly understood, denied the lower federal courts any authority to displace state courts....). 97 In particular, as Justice Marshall stated, 481 U.S. at 25, 107 S.Ct. at 1533, [w]here federal relief can only be predicated upon a conviction that the state court was wrong a federal proceeding would be a prohibited appeal. However, the narrow remaining claims of the alleged procedural violations of Catz's constitutional rights do not rest on any substantive wrongness of the rulings of the Arizona courts, and the Rooker-Feldman doctrine does not bar the maintenance of this action. 98 We therefore REVERSE the judgment of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, and REMAND for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion. 99