SPOUSAL SUPPORT IS ENFORCEABLE NOTWITHSTANDING ONE'S CAPACITY!
I was
recently retained in a very interesting case.
The matter posed a unique set of facts and legal issues. Can the daughter of a party, who lacks
capacity, enforce a spousal support obligation on behalf of said party? Given the ruling by the trial court yesterday, the answer is YES!
THE
LAW!
Although,
in general, the only persons permitted to be parties
to a proceeding for dissolution or legal separation are the husband and wife (Cal. Rules of Court, rule 1211(a).), the California Code of Civil Procedure
provides an exception for a party lacking capacity. Said representation is usually permissible by and through a guardian or a conservator of the spouse. Code of Civil
Procedure § 372.
An
"incompetent person" includes “‘a person for whom a conservator may
be appointed.” Id. In re Marriage of
Higgason (overruled on other
grounds by In re Marriage of Dawley (1976) 17 Cal.3d 342, 352) held a petition for
dissolution of marriage may be brought on behalf of a spouse, who is under
conservatorship, by and through the spouse's guardian ad litem. (10 Cal.3d at p. 483.) The wife in Higgason, was 73 years old and
the husband was 48. Upon her own petition, the wife been adjudicated an
incompetent person two weeks after their marriage and a conservator, a commercial
bank, had been appointed. Id. California Probate Code § 2462, provides in pertinent part as follows,
“…unless
another person is appointed for that purpose, the guardian or conservator
may:
a. Commence and maintain actions and proceedings
for the benefit of the ward or conservatee or the estate.
b.
Defend actions and proceedings against the ward or conservatee, the guardian or
conservator, or the estate.”
FACTS IN MY CASE
In my case, after being ordered to pay spousal
support nearly 40 years ago, Husband fled the State. Wife lost all contact with him and was eventually unable to enforce the prior support order. For all purposes, she essentially gave up!
About
two months, Wife’s daughter (my client), saw a photograph of the Husband in the
local newspaper. The picture was accompanied
by an article citing Husband’s generosity in donating thousands of dollars to
charity. Needless to say, my client was shocked
and soon thereafter contacted my office. After investigating the situation, we realized that Wife lacked capacity to pursue enforcement herself thus a
conservatorship was needed. Therefore,
we filed both a request for appointment of conservator and a post judgment RFO
for the determination of spousal supports arrears.
RULINGS IN MY CASE
RULINGS IN MY CASE
The conservatorship
was granted last month. Yesterday, the
court granted our RFO and ruled in our favor. The following orders were rendered:
“The
court finds and determines that, as of April 14, 2016, Petitioner owes
Respondent spousal
support arrears in the total amount of $389,371.00. Petitioner is ordered to pay Respondent said
arrears within thirty (30) days of service of this order.
If the above
determined arrears of $389,371.00 are not paid in full within thirty
(30) days of
service of this order, the Court further orders that Respondent, and or her
conservator **********, may seize and or sell Petitioner’s property, including
the real property located at ****************************,
to satisfy said arrears order.
The above order included nearly $200,000.00 in interest!
Moral of the story, don’t
ignore or more importantly, don’t give up on past support obligations!
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