OPINION OF THE COURT
Petitioner and respondent were married in Washington and are the parents of a daughter (born in 2005). Following the par
In 2009, petitioner filed a petition in Saratoga County to modify respondent’s visitation. Respondent answered and cross-petitioned seeking sole custody of the child. Both parties appeared before Family Court and, in December 2009, an order was entered modifying the visitation provisions of the custody order. In the meantime, petitioner registered the Washington support order in New York and commenced this proceeding seeking an upward modification. Respondent moved to dismiss the petition on the ground that New York did not have personal jurisdiction over him or subject matter jurisdiction to modify the Washington support order. A Support Magistrate granted respondent’s motion to dismiss the petition for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. Family Court subsequently dismissed petitioner’s objections regarding jurisdiction and confirmed the Support Magistrate’s order, prompting this appeal.
Petitioner’s contention that Family Court has jurisdiction to modify the Washington child support order centers around a perceived conflict between the jurisdictional requirements contained in the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act (hereinafter UIFSA; see Family Ct Act art 5-B) and the Federal Full Faith and Credit for Child Support Orders Aсt (hereinafter FFCCSOA; see 28 USC § 1738B). “FFCCSOA ‘follow[s] the contours of UIFSA’ . . . [and t]he two statutes have complementary goals” (Matter of Auclair v Bolderson,
“(1) to facilitate the enforcement of child support orders among the [s]tates; (2) to discourage continuing interstate controversies over child support in the interest оf greater financial stability and secure family relationships for the child; and (3) to avoid jurisdictional competition and conflict among [s]tate courts in the establishment of child support orders” (Pub L 103-383, § 2 [c]).
Under both UIFSA and FFCCSOA, the state issuing a child support order retains continuing, exclusive jurisdiction over that order so long аs an individual contestant continues to reside in the issuing state (see Family Ct Act § 580-205 [a], [d]; 28 USC § 1738B [d], [e] [2] [A]; Matter of Spencer v Spencer,
Where, as here, the issuing state has lost continuing jurisdiction, UIFSA confers jurisdiction upon the New York courts to modify an out-of-state support order only if that order is registered in New York (see Family Ct Act § 580-611 [a]) and “(1) none of the parties or children continues to reside in the issuing state; (2) thе party seeking modification is not a resident of the modifying state; and (3) the nonmoving party is subject to personal jurisdiction in the modifying state” (Matter of Auclair v Bolderson,
“[i]f there is no individual contestant or child residing in the issuing [sjtate, the party or support enforcement agency seeking to modify, or to modify and enforce, a child support order issued in another [sjtate shall register that order in a [sjtate with jurisdiction over the nonmovant for the purpose of modification” (emphasis added).
The parties’ dispute centers on the meaning оf the phrase “jurisdiction over the nonmovant.” ■
Petitioner argues that the phrase “jurisdiction over the nonmovant” in FFCCSOA contemplates only a requirement of personal jurisdiction, not subject matter jurisdiction, and to the extent that UIFSA sets forth the additional requirement that the party seeking modification be a nоnresident of the modifying state, it is preempted by FFCCSOA under the Supremacy Clause of the US Constitution. Respondent, on the other hand, argues that the term “jurisdiction over the nonmovant” in FFCCSOA should be interpreted to refer to both personal and subject matter jurisdiction, and that FFCCSOA should be read as incorporating the subjeсt matter jurisdiction requirements of UIFSA — i.e., the nonresidency requirement — such that the jurisdictional requirements of the two statutes are harmonious. Initially, we agree with petitioner that the term “jurisdiction over the nonmovant” plainly and expressly refers to personal jurisdiction alone, and not subject matter jurisdiction (see Draper v Burke, 450 Mass 676, 684-685,
“Congressional preemptive intent may be discerned in three ways: (1) expressly in the language of the [flederal statute; (2) implicitly, when the [fledеral legislation is so comprehensive in scope that it is inferable that Congress intended to fully occupy the ‘field’ of its subject matter; or (3) implicitly, when [s]tate law actually ‘conflicts’ with [flederal law” (Drattel v Toyota Motor Corp.,92 NY2d 35 , 42 [1998] [citation omitted]; accord Rosario v Diagonal Realty, LLC,8 NY3d at 763 ).
Here, FFCCSOA does not contain an express statement by Congress that it intended to preempt UIFSA. On the issue of impliеd preemption, we find both the existence of an actual conflict and an intent by Congress to occupy the field, thereby impliedly preempting the jurisdictional requirements of UIFSA.
As previously noted, FFCCSOA and UIFSA both attempt to eliminate judicial competition and conflicting orders in interstate child support disputes by establishing clear, definite rules as to which state has jurisdiction to modify or enforce child support orders (see 28 USC § 1738B [a]; Pub L 103-383, § 2 [c]). And, a review of the legislative history of FFCCSOA reveals that Congress determined that there was a need for uniformity among the states as to the enforcement of child support orders.
Our conclusion here is analogous to the impact of the enactment of the Federal Parental Kidnaping Prevention Act of 1980 (28 USC § 1738A [hereinafter PKPA]), which requires that full faith and credit be given to child custody determinations, upon the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act (hereinafter UCCJA), embodied in Domestic Relations Law former article 5-A. Like UIFSA, UCCJA had been enacted by all 50 states and was designed to prevent jurisdictional competition and conflict between state courts in the enforcement and modification of custody and visitation orders (see Domestic Relations Law former § 75-b [1] [a]). The purposes of UCCJA are to “discourage
Notably, the Court of Appeals has held that where UCCJA and PKPA conflict, PKPA preempts UCCJA by virtue of the Supremacy Clause (see Matter of Mott v Patricia Ann R.,
Having found that the jurisdictional requirements of FFCCSOA preempt those of UIFSA, we now address the remaining requirement of FFCCSOA — whether personal jurisdiction may be maintained over respondent in New York. Due process permits a state court to exercise personal jurisdiction over a nondomiciliary so long as he or she has sufficient “minimum contacts” with the forum state such that the maintenance of the lawsuit “does not offend ‘traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice’ ” (International Shoe Co. v Washington,
Here, respondent acquiesced in the child’s relocation to New York, paid child support in this state and visited with the child in New York. While these acts, standing alone, are insufficient to confer personal jurisdiction over rеspondent (see Kulko v Superior Court of Cal., City & County of San Francisco,
Therefore, inasmuch as none of the parties continues to reside in Washington, the Washington support order was registered in New York and New York may exercise personal jurisdiction over respondent, the jurisdictional requirements of FFCCSOA have been satisfied. Thus, Family Court possesses jurisdictiоn to modify the Washington child support order.
Spain, Rose, Lahtinen and McCarthy, JJ., concur.
Ordered that the order is reversed, on the law, without costs, motion denied, and matter remitted to the Family Court of Sara-toga County for further proceedings not inconsistent with this Court’s decision.
Notes
. In its report that accompanied the bill containing FFCCSOA, the House of Represеntatives noted that hearings held before various subcommittees of Congress “have demonstrated the inadequacy of existing [s]tate law to protect the interests of children and custodial parents in enforcing child support orders where the non-custodial parent lives in a different [s]tate” (HR Rep 206, 103rd Cong, 1st Sess, at 4 [1993]). The report also pointed out that “the Full Faith and Credit clause of Article IV of the Constitution, and implementing legislation adopted by the Congress, have generally not been construed to apply to orders where the matter involves an ongoing obligation and the
Likewise, the Senate found that “a large and growing number of child support cases involve disputes across state lines, and the laws by which courts determine their authority to establish and modify child support orders are not uniform” (S Rep 361, 103rd Cong, 2d Sess, at 5, reprinted in 1994 US Code Cong & Admin News, at 3261-3262). The Senate report stated that “[t]his lack of uniformity . . . has led to a number of deficiencies in child support collection [and] encourages noncustodial parents to relocate outside the [s]tates where their children and custodial parents reside, in order to avoid the jurisdiction of the courts of such [s]tates” (S Rep 361, 103rd Cong, 2d Sess, at 5, reprinted in 1994 US Code Cong & Admin News, at 3262).
. Although the United States Supreme Court has held that “ ‘[t]he whole subject of the domestic relations of husband and wife, parent and child, belongs to the laws of the [s]tates and not to the laws of the United States’ ” (Rose v Rose, 481 US 619, 625 [1987], quoting In re Burrus, 136 US 586, 593-594 [1890]; accord Hisquierdo v Hisquierdo,
. Although New York replaced UCCJA with the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act (hereinafter UCCJEA) in 2002 (see L 2001, ch 386, § 1), UCCJEA is a revised version of UCCJA that seeks to conform to the provisions of PKPA (see Sobie, Practice Commentaries, McKinney’s Cons Laws of NY, Book 14, Domestic Relations Law § 75-b, at 323), and it has been held that the jurisdictional provisions of PKPA preempt those of UCCJEA that are inconsistent (see Stocker v Sheehan,