Opinion ID: 2277974
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Family Court Adjudication of Incompetency

Text: The Family Court has limited jurisdiction. It does, however, have the necessary authority to resolve those matters which are properly before it. Petition of B & F Towing and Salvage, Del.Supr., 551 A.2d 45, 48 (1988). The Wife's second contention is that the Family Court had no statutory authority to adjudicate the Husband mentally incompetent. Conversely, the Husband argues that the determination of his mental competency was authorized by statute and relevant to a matter properly before the Family Court, e.g., the length of an alimony award in this divorce proceeding. Id. Section 1518(f) provides: No decree that may enter shall relieve a spouse from any obligation imposed by law as a result of the marriage for the support or maintenance of a spouse adjudicated to be mentally incompetent prior to the decree, unless such spouse has sufficient property or means of support. The operative word in that statute for present purposes is adjudicated. The definition of that word was carefully examined by this Court, more than twenty-five years ago, in the context of another divorce, when the authority to determine the mental competency of one spouse was also at issue. Glisson v. Glisson, Del.Supr., 237 A.2d 393 (1967). In Glisson, this Court held that the meaning of adjudicate is to render a judgment in a case by the exercise of judicial power. Glisson v. Glisson, 237 A.2d at 396 (emphasis added). The Delaware General Assembly decided to use the word adjudicate in 13 Del.C. § 1518(f) subsequent to this Court's decision in Glisson. The legislature's choice of that precise, previously defined, term vested the Family Court with express statutory authority to determine the mental competence of a spouse prior to its entry of a divorce decree, i.e., to render that judgment in a case by the exercise of judicial power. Glisson v. Glisson, 237 A.2d at 396. The Wife's contention, that the Family Court was without statutory authority to adjudicate the Husband's mental competency, is contrary to the unambiguous language of 13 Del.C. § 1518(f) and the prior decisions of this Court.