Court Opinion

ID: 9618392
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 05:11:53.124766+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:04:29.877028
License: Public Domain

Justice MEYER
dissenting.
I must respectfully dissent from the majority opinion because I feel it contains significant errors in both reasoning and result.
To begin with, the opinion of the majority errs by only vacating the default judgment originally obtained in North Carolina by the plaintiff-husband. While I agree with the con*382struction of Rule 4 adopted by the majority, I would vote to dismiss the husband’s action, not merely to set aside his default judgment. The fact that the judgment is only vacated, as I understand it, means that the action is still pending. This is especially significant in light of the majority’s decision, discussed below, that defendant-wife has now made a general appearance in this State.
I find the majority opinion to be absolutely inconsistent in saying in one breath:
We disagree with defendant’s contention that once the North Carolina courts assert jurisdiction over her to determine whether the Illinois judgment is entitled to full faith and credit, they likewise retain jurisdiction over her in the event that plaintiff files a motion seeking a new determination of custody on the basis of a substantial change in circumstances. (Emphasis added.)
and in the next breath:
As a general rule, once a court in this state properly asserts jurisdiction to determine the rights of the parties to custody of a minor child, that court retains jurisdiction to modify its custody decree upon a showing of a substantial change of circumstances. (Citations omitted.) In addition, we have held that when a court in this state asserts jurisdiction in a habeas corpus proceeding to enforce a custody decree of another state, the court retains jurisdiction to modify the sister state’s decree upon a showing of a substantial change in circumstances since the date the foreign decree was entered.
The majority opinion goes on, however, to say in effect that if a final judgment (and I assume it would be an order rather than a judgment) awarding full faith and credit is entered before allegations of changed circumstances are properly made, then the jurisdiction of the North Carolina court terminates. I submit that this would be of little consolation to this defendant if such allegations are properly presented by the plaintiff before the case is dismissed.
The action of the husband should be dismissed rather than the order vacated for the simple reason that the courts of North *383Carolina do not have personal jurisdiction over the defendant. The majority says that the defendant did not properly contest personal jurisdiction and thus waived that issue, and that defendant’s motion for full faith and credit is a sufficient basis for the courts of this State to exercise the full power of jurisdiction over this defendant. I quarrel with both conclusions.
First, it seems patently clear to me that defendant did challenge personal jurisdiction from the outset. Defendant’s third motion filed in this action read:
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 of this case, are unconstitutional and the Court has no personal jurisdiction over the defendant. (Emphasis added.)
The majority states that they “interpret” this motion as challenging only subject matter jurisdiction because defendant cited our statute involving subject matter jurisdiction. They say it is “unclear” whether she intended to also challenge personal jurisdiction. I submit that defendant has used simple English which requires no “interpretation.” I contend that motion number 3 challenges jurisdiction of both subject matter and the person. If this were not so what other earthly reason could there be for the use of the conjunctive “and” in her motion.
The majority quotes at length from statements of fact made by defendant with her motion and concludes correctly that those statements were not actual motions. They were not intended to be. But they do quite clearly illustrate what defendant intended to accomplish by the filing of her motions. In my view it is quite clear that defendant intended to challenge personal jurisdiction. Moreover, if there is some possible ambiguity, which I submit is not present here, that ambiguity should be resolved against finding that defendant waived so fundamental a right as the due process right to contest personal jurisdiction. Under our Rules of Civil Procedure, the pleadings of parties are to be “construed as to do substantial justice.” Rule 8(f).
As defendant did make a proper motion challenging personal jurisdiction coupled with a motion to dismiss, the proper course would be to consider the motion to dismiss before considering defendant’s motion for full faith and credit. If the motion to *384dismiss is granted because of lack of personal jurisdiction, the motion for full faith and credit remains, but is not appended to the husband’s action. It should be clear that our Rules of Civil Procedure allow for alternative defenses to an action. Rule 12(b) provides that “No defense or objection is waived by being joined with one or more other defenses or objections in a responsive pleading or motion.” The effect of the majority opinion is to suggest that defendant should have filed a motion contesting personal jurisdiction, and upon denial of that motion, then filed a motion for full faith and credit. Such a multi-fold process frustrates the efficient operation of our courts which the Rules were designed to insure. It also allows a court to bootstrap jurisdiction by passing over a jurisdictional defense if a defense on the merits is also pleaded. I would dismiss plaintiff-husband’s action for lack of personal jurisdiction over the wife.
I would also grant defendant’s motion for full faith and credit but find that in this case that is not a sufficient reason for finding that the defendant made a general appearance. This result may seem a bit tortured at first glance, but in the area of full faith and credit in custody decrees, I would caution my brethren that few rules are hard and fast. Ehrenzweig, Conflict of Laws § 87 (1962).
I believe that one of the reasons the majority wrongly interpreted defendant’s motion to challenge subject matter jurisdiction only was its mistaken belief that “the courts of North Carolina must assert personal jurisdiction over defendant in order to grant her request for full faith and credit ...” (emphasis added). I submit that the majority’s assumption in that regard is clearly wrong.
I would agree with the majority that defendant had made a general appearance if defendant had brought suit on the Illinois judgment, or if defendant in any way involved the adjudicatory power of this State’s courts. This she has not done. Rather, she has merely brought to this State for full faith and credit recognition a judgment of a sister state. After the matter has been fully litigated in Illinois, the action of this State in recognizing and enforcing the already valid judgment is essentially administrative in character, not adjudicatory. Leflar, American Conflicts Law § 78 (3d ed. 1977). As previously stated, the position of the majority is that once we accord full faith and credit the jurisdiction of this *385Court terminates, despite our holding that defendant made a general appearance. I have argued that under our prior case law our jurisdiction continues. 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). For that reason also we should find that defendant did not make a general appearance.
I fear that the majority does not fully appreciate the impact of the Marlowe decision on the question before us. Marlowe squarely says that the granting of full faith and credit in a custody matter does not preclude inquiry into changed circumstances. “Changed conditions will always justify inquiry by the courts in the interst and welfare of the children, and decrees may be entered as often as the facts justify.” 268 N.C. at 199, 150 S.E. 2d at 206. The inquiry of the court is limited, however, to the question of changed circumstances. In Richter this Court cited with approval the language of Judge, later Justice, Cardozo:
The jurisdiction of a state to regulate the custody of infants found within its territory does not depend upon the domicile of the parents. It has its origin in the protection that is due to the incompetent or helpless. . . . But the limits of the jurisdiction are suggested by its origin. (Citations omitted.)
Finlay v. Finlay, 240 N.Y. 429, 148 N.E. 624 (1925). We do have jurisdiction to consider changed circumstances because we have jurisdiction over the child. Saying that we have jurisdiction to conduct this limited inquiry is not paramount to saying we have personal jurisdiction over the wife. My conviction that defendant should not now be subject to the jurisdiction of our courts is further bolstered by my reading of U.S. Supreme Court decisions concerning personal jurisdiction, beginning with International Shoe v. Washington, 326 U.S. 310, 66 S.Ct. 154, 90 L.Ed. 95 (1945), and running through Shaffer v. Heitner, 433 U.S. 186, 97 S.Ct. 2569, 83 L.Ed. 2d 683 (1977). Simply put, Shaffer mandates that “all assertions of state court jurisdiction” be evaluated under a “fair play and substantial justice” standard. Weintraub, Commentary on the Conflict of Laws § 4.11 (2d. ed. 1980). See generally Symposium: State Court Jurisdiction After Shaffer v. Heitner, 63 Iowa L. Rev. 991 (1978); Note, In Personam Jurisdiction, 4 N.C.J. Int’l L. & Com. Reg. 41 (1978). The jurisdiction of our courts is *386subject to due process limitations, and the core concepts of due process in this area in my opinion are reasonableness and fairness. Weintraub § 4.3. I deem it both unreasonable and unfair that Mrs. Lynch now finds herself subject to the jurisdiction of our courts simply because she has tried to enforce what, under the majority result, is a meaningless determination of custody.
Since this action was instituted, our legislature has enacted G.S. 50A-15, the section of the Uniform Child Custody Act under which Mrs. Lynch could have proceeded to register her Illinois judgment in North Carolina had that Act then been in force. The pertinent part of G.S. 50A-15 provides:
Filing and enforcement of custody decree of another state. —(a) An exemplified copy of a custody decree of another state may be filed in the office of the clerk of any superior court of this State. The clerk shall treat the decree in the same manner as a custody decree of a court of this State. A custody decree so filed has the same effect and shall be enforced in like manner as a custody decree rendered by a court of this State.
(b) A person violating a custody decree of another state which makes it necessary to enforce the decree in this State may be required to pay necessary travel and other expenses, including attorneys’ fees, incurred by the party entitled to the custody of such party’s witnesses.
I question whether even perfunctory registration of a judgment under this statute would likewise amount to a general appearance, and thus whether in a similar situation Mrs. Lynch would be deemed to have so appeared. I would say that she has not.
For the reasons given, I would vote to dismiss the husband’s action for lack of personal jurisdiction over defendant-wife, and to grant Mrs. Lynch’s motion for full faith and credit. As noted above, granting full faith and credit does give us jurisdiction to consider changed circumstances, and the husband must ordinarily be given the opportunity to make such a motion. Under the facts of this case, however, inquiry into changed circumstances would be precluded by either the requirement of Illinois law that there be no reconsideration, on an allegation of changed circumstances, *387of a custody decision for two years after entry of the decree or by the intervening adoption by this State of the Uniform Child Custody Act, whereunder courts of this State may decline jurisdiction in cases such as this. (See G.S. 50A-8.)
Justice HUSKINS joins in this dissent.