Latest 5 Cases This Week: Marriage of Nevai and Klemunes (Cal. Ct. App.), Marriage of Wozniak (Cal. Ct. App.), In re Teagan K.-O. (Conn.)

American Law’s Worst Moment—2020

AUSTIN SARAT

Austin Sarat—Associate Provost and Associate Dean of the Faculty and William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence & Political Science at Amherst College—explains why the police murder of George Floyd was the worst moment of 2020 in American law. Professor Sarat proposes that we remember the event and that date—May 25—as “infamous,” a word reserved for rare and atrocious events like the bombing of Pearl Harbor, in an attempt to capture the brutality and inhumanity of the act.

Read More

Marriage of Nevai and Klemunes

Court: California Courts of Appeal

Docket: C086584(Third Appellate District)

Opinion Date: December 29, 2020

Judge: Krause

Areas of Law: Family Law

Martha Nevai (wife) contended the trial court erred in various orders of reimbursement to the community for spending related to wife’s separate property. She also argued the trial court erred in setting spousal support and in refusing to award her attorney fees. After review, the Court of Appeal agreed the trial court erred in fixing the permanent spousal support award and in reimbursing John Klemunes (husband) for mortgage interest and property taxes on wife’s vacation home. Further, the trial court also erred in ordering that each side pay their own attorney fees. The Court reversed the relevant portions of the judgment and remanded the matter for recalculation and further consideration. Judgment was affirmed in all other respects.

Marriage of Wozniak

Court: California Courts of Appeal

Docket: D074813(Fourth Appellate District)

Opinion Date: December 29, 2020

Judge: Cynthia Aaron

Areas of Law: Family Law

Anna Wozniak challenged the trial court’s characterization of a particular residence as the parties' community property. The property at issue was originally owned by Anna as her separate property, but that at some point prior to 2006, Anna transmuted this property into community property. In 2006, Grzegorz Wozniak prepared and executed an interspousal transfer deed, which, if effective, would have passed his community property interest in the residence to Anna. At trial, the parties disputed Anna’s response to Grzegorz’s attempted delivery of the interspousal transfer deed; Grzegorz testified that Anna rejected the deed, and Anna testified that she was surprised when Grzegorz presented the executed deed to her but that she ultimately took possession of it. Over the next six years, the deed was not recorded and both parties appeared to agree that it remained in the martial residence. In 2012, after an incident in which a protective order was granted in favor of Grzegorz and against Anna, Anna took possession of the deed and recorded it. At the conclusion of the trial, the trial court stated in its findings that it found Grzegorz’s testimony about the deed to be credible and concluded that Anna had rejected the deed in 2006, and that as a result, no transmutation had been consummated between the parties at that time. The court further found that when Anna recorded the deed in 2012, Grzegorz no longer had the intent to transmute his community property interest to Anna. The trial court thus concluded that the property at issue was community property. On appeal, Anna contended the trial court erred in concluding that the residence was community property. After review, the Court of Appeal concluded the trial court did not err in its analysis of the law regarding the transmutation of property between spouses, and that the court’s findings were supported by substantial evidence.

In re Teagan K.-O.

Court: Connecticut Supreme Court

Docket: SC20245

Opinion Date: December 28, 2020

Judge: Andrew J. McDonald

Areas of Law: Family Law

The Supreme Court reversed the order of the district court denying Father's motion to dismiss a petition to adjudicate a newborn child neglected on the basis of "predictive neglect" when the parents relocated to another state before the child's birth, holding that the Connecticut trial court lacked subject matter jurisdiction. After the Commissioner of Children and Families filed a petition seeking to terminate Respondents' parental rights, Respondents drove to Florida and signed a one-year lease for an apartment. Two days after the child's birth, the Florida Department of Children and Families took custody of the child. The Connecticut trial court then filed a petition seeking to adjudicate the child neglected. The motion was denied on the ground that the child was not in Connecticut. Thereafter, the Florida department filed a motion to transfer jurisdiction to the Connecticut trial court, which the magistrate granted. Thereafter, Father filed a motion to dismiss the pending neglect petition on the ground of lack of subject matter jurisdiction. The Connecticut trial court denied Father's motion. The Supreme Court reversed, holding that a Connecticut trial court could not exercise subject matter jurisdiction over the neglect petition because any neglect of the child would never occur in Connecticut.

In re Appeal of H.H.

Court: Vermont Supreme Court

Citation: 2020 VT 107

Opinion Date: December 31, 2020

Judge: Eaton

Areas of Law: Family Law, Government & Administrative Law

Petitioner H.H. appealed a Vermont Human Services Board order upholding the Department for Children and Families’ (DCF’s) substantiation of a report that she placed her daughter at risk of harm from sexual abuse. The Board granted summary judgment to the State, concluding that the stipulated findings in a related child-in-need-of-care-or-supervision (CHINS) proceeding precluded petitioner from contesting her substantiation and resulting placement on the Child Protection Registry. Petitioner argued the Board erred in applying collateral estoppel on the basis of the CHINS adjudication. To this, the Vermont Supreme Court agreed, reversed and remanded for further proceedings.

In re Adoption of MAJB

Court: Wyoming Supreme Court

Citation: 2020 WY 157

Opinion Date: December 28, 2020

Judge: Gray

Areas of Law: Family Law

The Supreme Court reversed the judgment of the district court dismissing Petitioners' verified petition for adoption requesting that the court enter an order of adoption recognizing MB's medically established age and directing the issuance of a Wyoming birth certificate with an accurate date of birth, holding that the district court erred. Petitioners adopted a minor, MB, from the Henan Province, Zhengzhou, People's Republic of China. The United States Department of State issued a Hague Adoption Certificate certifying the adoption. Later, MB's pediatrician determined that MB's documented age was incorrect and that MB was actually two years younger than the age listed on the official paperwork. Petitioners then filed the petition at issue. The district court dismissed the petition, concluding that it lacked subject matter jurisdiction and that approval of the adoption was moot because the Hague Convention adoption must be recognized as valid and final. The Supreme Court reversed, holding that the district court (1) had subject matter jurisdiction to approve The Hague Convention adoption; and (2) was statutorily authorized to issue a decree of adoption allowing MB to obtain a Wyoming birth certificate with an accurate date of birth.