Jx/DATE/CITE: Court of Appeal of California, Second Appellate District, Division Five, (1992)
In re Marriage of Liss, 10 Cal. App. 4th 1426, 1428, 13 Cal. Rptr. 2d 397, 397 (1992)
DECISION BELOW: In a dissolution proceeding of a marriage of 13 years, the trial court entered a judgment of dissolution, and resolved a few other issues; it reserved Jx over spousal support (SS) . At a subsequent proceeding to resolve issues that were left unaddressed at the previous hearing, the Court decline to provide H SS. However because of the length of the marriage [13 years], and H’s statement at the hearing that he would not waive SS, the Court retained Jx over SS until either party’s death, remarriage or further order of the court. The Court did this despite the fact that H’s initial response failed to request SS, and further, the Husband argued in his trial brief that the Court should not retain, or grant, SS to the parties.
RULE: 1)      Where the Respondent does not waive his right to Spousal Support, the Court may retain Jx over Spousal Support despite Respondent’s failure to request it in his initial response.

2)      Due process is satisfied when the other party is present, and able to object (as opposed to a default).

P ARGUMENT: 1)      Since H failed to request Spousal Support in his initial Response, he waived his right to Spousal Support in the future and argued that Spousal Support should not be granted, and the Court should not retain JX.

2)      Because H failed to request Spousal Support initially, the Trial Court did not have the power to retain jurisdiction on an issue that was not raised by H in the initial pleading stage.

R ARGUMENT: The reservation of jurisdiction over spousal support after a lengthy marriage is supported by strong policy, and the parties were married for 13 years. Further, H expressly stated that he was not waiving his claim to Spousal Support. Thus, the Court has the right to retain Jx over the issue.
ANALYSIS: A trial court has wide discretion in a nondefault matter to permit parties to amend their pleadings in furtherance of justice or to conform to proof. ( Code Civ. Proc., § 469, 473, 576; Cal. Rules of Court, rule 1215(d) [amendment of family law pleadings]. There is no abuse of discretion when, taking the length of marriage into account, the Court finds that Jx is properly retained despite H’s initial failure to request Spousal Support. Had the Court found that H waived his claim to Spousal Support, the case would be different.

In response to W’s Lippel argument, the Court noted that there is a fundamental difference between a contested dissolution, and default dissolution. In a default setting, the other side does not appear, and thus, any award beyond what was requested in the pleadings would violate due process (including retaining jurisdiction over something not requested in the initial Petition, or an Amended Petition [one amended Petition by right before Response is filed]). [NOTE: The Lippel argument can only work for the Petitioner then, because by definition, dissolution becomes contested when a response is filed]. The Court found that because it was a contested case, the Court could retain Jx over SS, despite it not being requested initially, because W was able to object to the Court retaining jurisdiction, and have her argument heard.

USE OF THIS CASE It is unfortunately common, but people sometimes forget to check all the appropriate boxes on Judicial Forms in Family Court proceedings. Much like the Petitioner in this case, the opposing side may argue that failure to request amounts to a waiver; this is not the case.