Court Opinion

ID: 9789951
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 01:44:23.473179+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:37:25.326330
License: Public Domain

Schroeder, C.J.,
dissenting: The Court of Appeals properly analyzed the pleadings in this case, isolated the issues to be decided and determined them in accordance with Kansas law.
The defendant in the trial court was the mother of three children and she wanted nothing to do with the plaintiff who was her prior husband and the father of her three children. Under no circumstances did she want the father of these children to have visitation rights with her children. She was so adamant in her position that she sought no order for child support, nor did she file any counterclaim specifically requesting payment of arrears in child support arising from the California decree or the Colorado decree. In her answer to the petition the defendant denied that plaintiff was entitled to a change of custody or visitation rights, and she prayed that the plaintiff take naught by his petition for custody and that the defendant be granted expenses, costs, attorney fees, and “such other and further relief as the court may deem just and equitable.” All she wanted was to be free of any contact with her former husband so she could live in peace with her children and her new husband (Hughes) who w>as supporting them.
Under these pleadings the trial court undertook to impose child support orders as a condition to visitation rights; and when the defendant was confronted with the possibility of visitation rights by the plaintiff, she sought through her attorney to impose intolerable financial burdens upon the plaintiff without pleadings or any hearing in the trial court to support her actions. Under these circumstances the Court of Appeals, in my opinion, properly held jurisdiction of the district court in the area of child support, or to enforce the support orders entered in California and Colorado, had not been properly invoked.
McFarland, J., joins the foregoing dissenting opinion.