In re Marriage of Amezquita & Archuleta
Court of Appeals of California
124 Cal. Rptr. 2d 887 (2002)
Mark Amezquita (defendant) and Roberta Archuleta (plaintiff) divorced in New Mexico, which ordered Mark to pay child support. Roberta later moved to California with the children and registered the New Mexico order there, seeking a modification. Mark was personally served in California, where he was stationed with the Air Force, but New Mexico remained his domicile. Mark argued only New Mexico had jurisdiction to modify the order under the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act (UIFSA), a federal law adopted by every state to sort out which state controls a support order when a family spans multiple states. The California trial court held it had jurisdiction both to modify and to enforce the order because Roberta had registered it there.
Whether, under the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act, a state where a noncustodial parent is personally served but not domiciled has jurisdiction to modify a child-support order entered by the parent's home state.