Opinion ID: 1946327
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Authority to Modify Custody Based on Stipulations of Fact.

Text: Mother argues that the principles just discussed apply here and deprive the trial court of jurisdiction to modify custody. She argues section 452.410 required the court to hold a hearing before it modified custody and it erred in failing to do so, instead relying on the stipulation signed by the parties. Section 452.410 states in relevant part: 1. Except as provided in subsection 2 of this section, the court shall not modify a prior custody decree unless it has jurisdiction under the provisions of section 452.450 and it finds, upon the basis of facts that have arisen since the prior decree or that were unknown to the court at the time of the prior decree, that a change has occurred in the circumstances of the child or his custodian and that the modification is necessary to serve the best interests of the child.... Sec. 452.410.1. Mother acknowledges that section 452.410 does not expressly require an evidentiary hearing in order to modify custody. But, Mother argues, various cases nonetheless have relied on it or its predecessors to hold that child custody modification proceedings require a hearing because the guiding principle in such proceedings is the best interest of the children and that cannot be determined by stipulation. Cases such as those cited by Mother are correct to the extent they state that, absent notice and an opportunity for hearing, a court has no authority under the statute to modify custody. [5] Whether or not such a defect is labeled as jurisdictional, it is clear that in such a case the court does not have authority to render the particular judgment in the particular case. But that is not dispositive here, for, as discussed below, the evidence presented permitted the court to find that both parents had notice of the modification hearing, that they conferred with counsel and agreed to the change of custody, that they filed both a document labeled stipulation and additional stipulated facts in a proposed judgment that they prepared and in a parenting plan, and Mother neither sought nor was denied the opportunity to present additional facts. Thus, notice and an opportunity for hearing were provided and the court had authority to modify custody. Mother suggests that a court may nonetheless retroactively be deprived of jurisdiction, and any judgment entered by it thereby rendered void, if in entering the judgment the court failed to follow all procedures set out in the relevant statutes, such as by failing to make findings of fact or to hold a hearing the statutes require. But, such errors would not deprive the court of subject matter or personal jurisdiction, nor would they affect the power of the court to render a particular judgment in the particular case. The tendency to call matters jurisdictional that are really only assertions of legal error greatly confuses the notion of jurisdiction in civil cases. It can also create the potential for great mischief because calling legal errors jurisdictional could be used years later to void settled judgments. The label jurisdictional defect is seldom appropriate outside the context of lack of jurisdiction of the subject matter or of the person. While it is not erroneous to use it in the narrow circumstances noted above in which a court by statute is without authority to hear a matter or to issue a judgment on a matter it purports to resolve, or does so without notice and an opportunity for hearing  areas that are related to, if not subsets of, lack of jurisdiction of the subject matter or the person  the label jurisdictional defect has no application to mere legal errors. Having obtained jurisdiction of the subject matter and the parties and having entered a judgment on the particular claims raised by the pleadings, at a time when statutory prerequisites to filing suit had been fulfilled, a court has jurisdiction to decide the case. If a court then errs in substance or procedure in failing to make necessary findings, in making findings not supported by the evidence, in excluding necessary evidence or in mistaking hearing requirements, it has not lost jurisdiction. It simply has erred. Such errors should be raised on appeal and, if prejudicial, may lead to reversal and remand. But, they do not affect the court's jurisdiction to render the particular judgment in the particular case, and [a] judgment is not void simply because it is erroneous, or based on precedent later determined to be incorrect or unconstitutional. Baxi, 122 S.W.3d at 96. To the extent that prior cases have misinterpreted Flynn , Charles , and their progeny, to say to the contrary, they are incorrect and should no longer be followed. [6] Of course, as Mother notes, section 452.410 does require the trial court to base its decision on facts that have arisen or been made known to it since its last decree. But, the statute does not state how these facts are to be made known, and nothing in it supports the assertion that the requirement that facts be found means that stipulations have no place in modification proceedings or that an evidentiary hearing invariably is required. In non-custody cases, facts may be adduced in a variety of ways, including the use of live testimony, the presentation of documentary evidence in support of a motion or at an evidentiary hearing, or by stipulation of the parties. A stipulation of fact dispenses with proof of the matters stipulated. In re An Omega Brand, 676 S.W.2d 292, 294 (Mo.App. E.D.1984). Further, parties to such stipulation, should not be heard to object to the proceedings or to the findings of facts by the trial court, if such findings are supported by substantial evidence. General Motors Acceptance Corp. v. VanAusdall, 241 Mo.App. 499, 249 S.W.2d 1003, 1006 (1952). Nothing in section 452.410 or other statutes suggests that different evidentiary rules apply in modification proceedings. This does not mean that the parties can simply submit a document that states that the parties stipulate that there has been a change of circumstances and that a modification of custody is in the best interests of the children. As numerous cases note, the parties cannot stipulate to the ultimate issues, for Missouri law requires that the court, not the parties, determine what custody arrangement is in the best interests of the children. If the court merely accepted the parents' stipulation as to best interests or a change of custody, its order would not be supported by substantial evidence and would be subject to reversal. [7] And, a party has a right not to submit its case based on a stipulation but instead to request a hearing. But, nothing in the statute precludes a stipulation as to facts, and numerous local court rules permit modification pursuant to such stipulations. [8] Applying these principles here, if the stipulated facts were insufficient or raised issues of credibility or best interests, then further evidence should have been taken before entering judgment. Normally, such a hearing would be the preferred course so that the stipulated facts could be explored and supplemented; such a hearing would, moreover, have avoided the kind of later questions that have arisen here as to whether the modification was based on sufficient notice and evidence. But, to the extent that some of the cases cited by Mother suggest that a hearing is required by section 452.410 even where the court finds that the stipulated facts are sufficient to allow it to determine that a change of circumstances has occurred and that a modification of custody is in the best interests of the children, they are incorrect and should no longer be followed. [9]