Court Opinion

ID: 9618390
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 05:11:53.119659+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:04:29.874329
License: Public Domain

Justice CARLTON
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent for the following reasons:
(1) Clearly, North Carolina had no personal jurisdiction over this defendant and, contrary to the majority holding, defendant properly raised this issue.
(2) The motion by defendant to accord the Illinois decree full faith and credit does not, in my view, constitute a general appearance in plaintiff’s action.
(3) Assuming arguendo that the motion for full faith and credit did constitute a general appearance, then contrary to the majority’s conclusion, our jurisdiction does not terminate upon the granting of the full faith and credit motion. In a child custody action, the law of this state is clear that jurisdiction continues to inquire into changed circumstances.
(4) While the result reached by the majority in this particular action is acceptable, the law created to reach that result will, I fear, cause dire consequences in future actions of this nature — and other cases in which full faith and credit is sought as well. On rehearing, this Court has further confused the very issues which it presumably sought to clarify. In fact, I can agree with none of the statements of law in the majority opinion except that relating to service of process.
A.
1.
I concur fully in Justice Meyer’s dissent. Like him, I believe that the proper disposition of this action must begin with the dismissal of the husband’s action. It is beyond question that Mrs. Lynch challenged personal jurisdiction, and it is our constitutional duty to dismiss the action.
*377As stated in the majority opinion, in her “Motions” of 30 November 1978 Mrs. Lynch included in her verified statements of fact the following:
13. North Carolina had no grounds for personal jurisdiction over the defendant in that the defendant was not served with process within North Carolina and has had no contacts with North Carolina justifying or allowing service outside the state, as set out in G.S. 1-75.4.
14. The courts of North Carolina where the defendant mother is neither domiciled, resident, or present may not cut off her immediate right to the care, custody, management, and companionship of her minor child without having jurisdiction over her in personam.
15. The defendant has not made a general appearance herein and jurisdiction has not been conferred by G.S. 1-75.7.
18. Proof of jurisdiction in accordance with G.S. 1-75.11 was not made and the plaintiff can show no grounds for personal jurisdiction over the defendant because no such grounds exist.
19. Personal jurisdiction was not obtained on the defendant herein.
(Emphases added.) The majority interprets these “statements of fact” as challenging the custody order of 1 June 1978 and “not as motions challenging personal jurisdiction at the time the document was filed.” While it is true that these statements are not motions, I disagree with the majority’s conclusion that the statements challenge only the custody order. These statements are nowhere limited as to time, ie., events before the motions were filed or to certain proceedings within the husband’s action. These statements are, without qualification or limitation, directed toward the issue of this state’s jurisdiction over the person of the defendant, and, in my opinion, can be “interpreted” no other way.
Plaintiff’s actual motions included the following:
3. To dismiss the custody action on the ground that the Orders entered and G.S. 50-13.5(c)(2)a, as applied to the facts *378of this case, are unconstitutional and the Court has no personal jurisdiction over the defendant.
(Emphasis added.) According to the majority “it is unclear whether [by motion number 3] defendant intended to challenge subject matter jurisdiction alone or both subject matter and personal jurisdiction.” The use of the conjunction “and” makes it perfectly clear that she intended to challenge both. Additionally, I would argue that this motion, when construed in light of her statements of fact, shows beyond any doubt that defendant intended to contest personal jurisdiction. Because this state has no contacts with defendant which would support personal jurisdiction absent a voluntary general appearance —which at the time of her motions to dismiss she had not made —defendant’s motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction should have been granted.
2.
I disagree with the majority’s characterization of defendant’s request for full faith and credit as a general appearance in her husband’s action. By holding that defendant has made a general appearance, the majority has put an enormous price tag on defendant’s right to enforce the Illinois judgment. Contrary to the majority’s conclusion, the effect of a general appearance in a child custody action in which the court has jurisdiction over the other parent and the subject child is to vest the court with jurisdiction over the parties and the matter until the child reaches majority. As the defendant fears, the plaintiff can make a motion in the cause for change of custody and defendant will be forced to return to North Carolina to litigate the matter.
To speak in terms of a “general appearance” is misleading in a case such as this. When a party comes into this state seeking enforcement of a sister state’s decree by way of full faith and credit, our jurisdiction over that party and over the subject matter of the prior litigation is, in my opinion, limited to inquiring whether the sister state had jurisdiction over the party against whom enforcement is sought and whether that party had notice of the litigation and an opportunity to be heard. The sole exception to this rule arises in child custody cases when a court may inquire into changed circumstances if the sister state would do so. The reason for this exception is obvious —the state has a duty to protect the interests of the minor child.
*379However characterized, the “appearance” of the party seeking enforcement of the decree gives the courts of this state jurisdiction to inquire only into the matters listed above. No other defense may be asserted by the party against whom enforcement is sought either by way of a defense to the original claim or by way of set-off. That this is the correct result becomes clear when it is remembered that this state has a constitutional duty to give the foreign decree the same effect it would have in the original jurisdiction. The only defenses to a final judgment in the state rendering the decree are lack of jurisdiction and notice; it must be the same when enforcement is sought in this state.
When defendant requested that the Illinois judgment be accorded full faith and credit the only “adjudication” she was seeking and which was necessary was an inquiry into jurisdiction and notice. She sought no “affirmative relief” because that had already been granted by the Illinois court. Had a defendant sued in this state raised these issues and these issues only as a “defense” to the suit, he would not be deemed to have made a general appearance. In re Blalock, 233 N.C. 493, 503, 64 S.E. 2d 848, 855 (1951). Interestingly, Blalock is the same authority cited in this Court’s original opinion for the proposition that defendant has made a general appearance.
By its holding that our jurisdiction terminates once the full faith and credit issue has been decided, the majority has attempted to reach the same result as I would, in spite of its insistence that defendant has made a general appearance. Were the result of this case our sole consideration, I would voice no objection. But the way the result is reached is more important than the result in this case because the majority has created precedent which will be applied to future litigation. Contrary to the belief of the majority, if a defendant makes a general appearance, our jurisdiction cannot terminate upon a finding that the foreign decree is entitled to full faith and credit. Our jurisdiction must and does continue until all matters arising in the litigation have been finally determined.
I vote to hold that when enforcement of a foreign decree is sought, the courts of this state acquire jurisdiction to inquire only into the jurisdiction of the foreign court and notice. The scope of our jurisdiction is only as broad as the adjudication sought. When *380full faith and credit is sought, the scope of our jurisdiction over the party who seeks full faith and credit is not so broad as to enable this state to require that he or she defend all claims that the opposing party may raise. In other words, a request for full faith does not constitute a “general appearance.”
3.
I am confused by the majority’s holding that while defendant has made a general appearance in her husband’s suit for divorce and custody our jurisdiction over her terminates upon a finding that the Illinois judgment is entitled to full faith and credit. Under our prior case law our jurisdiction to inquire into any change of circumstances arising subsequent to the sister state’s decree does not evaporate but continues after a finding that full faith and credit should be given that decree. In re Marlowe, 268 N.C. 197, 150 S.E. 2d 204 (1966); Richter v. Harmon, 243 N.C. 373, 90 S.E. 2d 744 (1956). As of this date the husband had not entered a valid motion seeking modification of the Illinois decree, but this is irrelevant on the issue of continued jurisdiction. It should be obvious that there is no need for the husband to make such a motion unless and until the full faith and credit issue has been decided against him. It is equally obvious, I think, that the evidence offered at the hearing of this matter in North Carolina concerned fitness of the parents as of that time and implicitly included any changes in circumstances which had arisen since the entry of the Illinois decree. Now that the majority has determined that the Illinois judgment should be given full faith and credit, the husband should have the opportunity to allege changed circumstances. While, as a practical matter, his motion may be of no avail, this result is entirely separate from the question of whether our jurisdiction continues after the full faith and credit determination has been made.
4.
The majority’s holding that defendant wife has entered a general appearance by requesting full faith and credit may be of little consequence in the present action because the Illinois judgment covers both claims for relief contained in the plaintiff husband’s complaint. In other actions, however, the precedent created by the majority could produce dire results. Suppose, for example, the husband had sued for divorce, custody and for per*381sonal injuries sustained as a result of a tort allegedly committed by the wife. Under the majority’s reasoning, the only way the wife could enforce the foreign decree and obtain the child would be to submit herself to her husband’s tort suit in a jurisdiction with which she has no contacts and in which she could not otherwise be required to appear. Such a result does not, in my opinion, comport with the notions of fair play inherent in due process.
B.
Like Justice Meyer, I would dispose of this case by granting full faith and credit and remanding to the trial court to allow the husband to allege changed circumstances. In all likelihood, however, his claim will not be heard, because the Uniform Child Custody Act which is now the law in this state, provides that the courts of this state shall not exercise jurisdiction to modify the decree of a sister state in child-snatching cases unless required in the interest of the child. In my opinion, this provision allows the courts of this state to exercise jurisdiction in a case such as this only under the most extraordinary of circumstances.
In summary, I vote to:
(1) Dismiss the husband’s suit for lack of personal jurisdiction over the defendant wife pursuant to Rule 12(b)(2) of the Rules of Civil Procedure,
(2) Grant the wife’s motion for full faith and credit,
(3) Hold that our jurisdiction over the matter continues to inquire into changed circumstances, and
(4) Enter a judgment granting the Illinois judgment full faith and credit and remanding the cause to the Court of Appeals with instructions to remand to the District Court, Cleveland County, for further proceedings.