Leon v. Jenkins (143 Cal. App. 4th 118, 2006)

Opinion

IRION, J.

In September 2003, the San Diego County Department of Child Support Services (DCSS) registered a New Mexico child support order in San Diego County Superior Court and in item 1, “Case Summary,” on an accompanying “Registration Statement,” listed zero dollars of arrears. In proceedings following the registration, the trial court adjudicated the amount of arrears owed under the order, including those incurred prior to registration, and determined that Gregory S. Jenkins, the obligor under the support order, owed over $3,000 in child support to his former wife, Amy D. de Leon.

In this appeal Jenkins contends that because neither he nor de Leon challenged the registration of the out-of-state support order and its statement that there were no arrears, within the 20-day period provided by statute the statement of arrears was “confirmed by operation of law” under Family Code section 4955, subdivision (b), precluding any further adjudication of the preregistration amount of arrears.

As discussed below, we disagree. The statute only binds a nonregistering party who fails to object prior to registration “with respect to any matter that could have been asserted at the time of registration.” (§ 4957, italics added.) Under the statute, de Leon could not have objected to an understatement of arrears at the time of registration, and consequently, she was not precluded from later objecting on that ground.

FACTS

After almost four years of marriage, Jenkins and de Leon were divorced by a New Mexico court in February 2002. As part of the divorce proceedings, the parties entered into a Marital Settlement Agreement (Agreement) that was incorporated into the dissolution judgment issued by the New Mexico court. The judgment provides that Jenkins is to pay child support of $915 a month for the parties’ two children, 100 percent of the childrens’ daycare expenses and a pro rata share of their uninsured medical expenses.

On September 4, 2003, DCSS registered the New Mexico judgment in superior court in San Diego County where de Leon now resides. DCSS filed a standard form “Registration Statement” along with the New Mexico judgment. On the form, under “Support Amount/Frequency,” DCSS listed “$915.00/monthly,” and under the “Amount of Arrears,” DCSS listed “$0.00.” The “Period of Computation” of the arrears listed was left blank. At the bottom of the form, under “Other,” DCSS noted “Medical Only Case.”

The court clerk sent Jenkins a “Notice of Registration of Out of State Support Order” and attached the Registration Statement and New Mexico judgment. The notice warns: “If you fail to contest the validity or enforcement of the attached order within 25 days of the date this notice was mailed, the order will be confirmed by the court and you will not be able to contest any portion of the order including the amount of arrears as specified in item 1 of the Registration Statement.” There is no indication in the record that any notice was sent to de Leon. Neither Jenkins nor de Leon filed any objection to the registration.

On May 21, 2004, Jenkins received a notice from the United States Department of the Treasury indicating that a portion of his federal income tax refund had been intercepted by DCSS. Jenkins filed a motion in the superior court requesting that these funds be returned to him; Jenkins claimed he was not delinquent in his child support payments, and that, in fact, de Leon owed him money. De Leon then filed a request seeking a judicial determination of unreimbursed medical and daycare expenses under the New Mexico judgment.

The trial court held a hearing on the matters on September 16, 2004, and again on October 28, 2004. After the hearings, the court determined that Jenkins owed de Leon $3,145.26 in daycare costs and uninsured medical expenses (a total that included costs incurred prior to the registration of the order), and ordered that those sums be paid from Jenkins’s federal income tax refund.

DISCUSSION

Jenkins’s primary contention on appeal is that the trial court erred in interpreting the governing statutory law—sections 4954, 4955 and 4957—to allow it to adjudicate preregistration arrears despite de Leon’s failure to object within the statutorily prescribed time period to the Registration Statement’s pronouncement that no arrears were owed. We evaluate this argument below after setting out the applicable statutory provisions.

A

Statutory Framework

The Uniform Interstate Family Support Act (UIFSA), section 4900 et seq., which has been adopted by all 50 states, “governs, inter alia, the procedures for establishing, enforcing and modifying child support orders in cases in which more than one state is involved.” (In re Marriage of Crosby & Grooms (2004) 116 Cal.App.4th 201, 206 [10 Cal.Rptr.3d 146].) Together with the Federal Full Faith and Credit for Child Support Orders Act (28 U.S.C. § 1738B), “the UIFSA ensures that in every case only one state exercises jurisdiction over child support at any given time.” (In re Marriage of Crosby & Grooms, at p. 206.) UIFSA was designed to eliminate the “multiple support order system” that had evolved under the previous uniform statute, the Revised Uniform Reciprocal Enforcement of Support Act (RURESA). (UIFSA Com., 29F West’s Ann. Fam. Code (2004) foil. § 4950, p. 541.)

Under UIFSA as enacted in California, a “support order” of another state may be registered in this state “for enforcement” (§ 4950) by sending a “letter of transmittal to the tribunal requesting registration and enforcement,” two copies of the order to be registered, “[a] sworn statement by the person requesting registration or a certified statement by the custodian of the records showing the amount of any arrearage,” and the name and other identifying information regarding the obligor and obligee of the order. (§ 4951, subd. (a).) Once registered, the out-of-state order “is enforceable in the same manner and is subject to the same procedures as an order issued by a tribunal of this state,” but may not, absent certain limited circumstances not pertinent here, be modified by the California court. (§ 4952; see Scheuerman v. Hauk (2004) 116 Cal.App.4th 1140, 1144 [11 Cal.Rptr.3d 125] (Scheuerman).)

An out-of-state support order need not be registered by the obligee of the order, but may be registered by “a stranger to the litigation, for example a grandparent or an employer of an alleged obligor,” or, as in this case, by a government agency such as DCSS. (UIFSA Com., 29F West’s Ann. Fam. Code, supra, foil. § 4955, p. 556.) Under other statutory law, DCSS is authorized to register an out-of-state support order on its own initiative when the subject child “is receiving public assistance, including Medi-Cal,” or after being “requested” to do so when the child is not receiving public assistance. (§ 17400, subd. (a); see Codoni v. Codoni (2002) 103 Cal.App.4th 18, 21 [126 . Cal.Rptr.2d 423].)

UIFSA provides that whenever an out-of-state support order is filed, “the registering tribunal shall notify the nonregistering party.” (§ 4954, subd. (a).) The notice “shall inform the nonregistering party: (1) That a registered order is enforceable as of the date of registration in the same manner as an order issued by a tribunal of this state; [ft] (2) That a hearing to contest the validity or enforcement of the registered order must be requested within 20 days after notice; [f] (3) That failure to contest the validity or enforcement of the registered order in a timely manner will result in confirmation of the order and enforcement of the order and the alleged arrearages and precludes further contest of that order with respect to any matter that could have been asserted; and [][] (4) Of the amount of any alleged arrearages.” (§ 4954, subd. (b).) “If the nonregistering party fails to contest the validity or enforcement of the registered order in a timely manner, the order is confirmed by operation of law” (§ 4955, subd. (b)), and such confirmation “precludes further contest of the order with respect to any matter that could have been asserted at the time of registration” (§ 4957).

B

Under the Statute, a Nonregistering Obligee Is Not Precluded from Objecting to an Understatement of Arrears After Registration

Sections 4954, 4955 and 4957 provide that absent timely objection, the statement of arrears included in a registration statement becomes binding on “the nonregistering party.” (§§ 4954, 4955.) Jenkins contends that the application of these sections to the instant case establishes that DCSS’s registration of the New Mexico support order and the accompanying statement of zero arrears was final as to de Leon because she is literally a “nonregistering party” who failed to object within 20 days of registration. (§§ 4954, 4955.) Consequently, Jenkins argues, the trial court was precluded from adjudicating the amount of preregistration arrears owed under the order. We disagree.

Even were we to accept Jenkins’s contention that the statutory references in sections 4954 and 4955 to “the nonregistering party,” reasonably read, encompass a nonregistering obligee such as de Leon, Jenkins’s argument fails. The statute does not provide that confirmation of the order precludes all later objections raised by a nonregistering party. Rather, it states only that “[confirmation of a registered order . . . precludes further contest of the order with respect to any matter that could have been asserted at the time of registration.” (§ 4957, italics added.) An objection to the statement of arrears in the DCSS’s registration statement is not a matter that de Leon “could have . . . asserted at the time of registration” (§ 4957), because such an objection is not one of the seven “narrowly defined defenses to registration” permitted under the statute. (UIFSA Com., 29F West’s Ann. Fam. Code, supra, foil. § 4956, p. 559; § 4956, subd. (a).)

Section 4956, subdivision (a) lists the following permissible grounds for objection to registration of an out-of-state child support order: “(1) The issuing tribunal lacked personal jurisdiction over the contesting party, [f] (2) The order was obtained by fraud. [][] (3) The order has been vacated, suspended, or modified by a later order, [f] (4) The issuing tribunal has stayed the order pending appeal. [