Forum Shopping in Divorce Cases
October 2, 2017 § Leave a comment
I posted here previously about the Lewis v. Pagel case, which changed the law of venue in divorce cases. It held that venue relates to personal jurisdiction, which can be waived or conferred voluntarily, rather than subject matter jurisdiction, which may not be waived or conferred voluntarily. The law up to Pagel had been that divorce venue conferred subject matter jurisdiction. Pre Pagel, if venue was wrong, the court was deprived of subject matter jurisdiction and any judgment it entered would be void.
In that same post I questioned whether Pagel would give rise to forum shopping. If personal jurisdiction can be waived, and venue is a function of personal jurisdiction, then venue should likewise be waivable.
How would that work? One example would be where two pro se litigants in Jasper County decide they can get an ID divorce quicker and easier in Jones County. So they file there. Or in a contested case the lawyers, after exhausting negotiations, mutually decide with their clients to file for divorce in Hinds County where their offices are, instead of in Simpson County where the parties live. Can or should the courts in Jones and Hinds entertain those actions?
Well, the language of MCA 93-5-11 has a lot to say about it:
“All complaints, except those based solely on the ground of irreconcilable differences, must be filed in the county in which the plaintiff resides, if the defendant be a nonresident of this state, or be absent, so that process cannot be served; and the manner of making such parties defendants so as to authorize a judgment against them in other chancery cases, shall be observed. If the defendant be a resident of this state, the complaint shall be filed in the county in which such defendant resides or may be found at the time, or in the county of the residence of the parties at the time of separation, if the plaintiff be still a resident of such county when the suit is instituted.
The operative verbs are must and shall, so the statute mandates where venue will lie. Pagel, on the other hand, says that venue only confers personal jurisdiction, which may always be waived.
So which controls? My best guess is that most chancellors will say that the statute controls, and a divorce filed contrary to the statute will be transferred to the proper venue. The right to waive personal jurisdiction would have to yield to the mandatory language of the statute.
But that’s just me. Your local experience may vary, and there are nine justices on the MSSC, as well as another ten on the COA, who could see it completely differently. Stay tuned.
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