superior court's order

Posted by Summer Payne on May 26th, 2021

Procedural Posture

Appellant filed appeal from order of Court of Appeal (California) affirming superior court's order, which denied appellant's motion to vacate child support provisions of default judgment entered in divorce action and its order assigning appellant's wages to respondent city as reimbursement for welfare funds expended on behalf of appellant's child.

Overview: civil lawyers Los Angeles

Appellant's wife filed a petition for dissolution of marriage on a standard form petition. She checked the box indicating she requested custody of their child, but left blank the box relating to child support. Appellant did not answer. The default judgment awarded custody to appellant's wife and ordered appellant to pay child support. Thereafter, respondent city, which had paid welfare benefits to appellant's child, sought assignment of appellant's wages, alleging he owed unpaid child support. The trial court ordered the requested relief. It denied appellant's motion to vacate the default judgment's child support provision and to vacate the order assigning his wages. The appellate court affirmed. The court reversed. Cal. Civ. Code § 580 provided that default relief granted to a plaintiff could not exceed the relief requested in the complaint. Adherence to an old line of cases that supported an exception for divorce actions was no longer warranted in view of the passage of The Family Law Act, Cal. Civ. Code § 4000 et seq., which created the mandatory standard form petition. Accordingly, the default judgment ordering appellant to pay child support was void for lack of notice.

Outcome

Court reversed judgment and remanded with instructions to order superior court to vacate the child support order and its order assigning wages to respondent. It was a denial of due process to enter default judgment ordering appellant to pay child support where marital dissolution petition did not request child support.