The facts, for purposes of appeal, are not disputed. In 1998, the Clackamas County Circuit Court entered an order approving an administrative order requiring defendant to pay child support of $204 per month, beginning December 1, 1997. In April 2012, the state sent defendant a notice of intent to transfer enforcement of the support order from Clackamas County Circuit Court to Multnomah County Circuit Court. Later that month, the state notified defendant that the case had been transferred and provided defendant with a copy of the packet that was filed with the court when the case was transferred. Defendant's case history record with the Support Enforcement Division (SED), which was admitted as evidence at trial, indicates Multnomah as the "CURRENT COUNTY" and contains a "TRANSFER ORDER" entry on July 17, 2012.
In May 2014, defendant was charged with contempt of court for willfully disobeying the support order.
The court rejected defendant's arguments, concluding that it had jurisdiction of the case under the general contempt statutes, ORS 33.015 to 33.155.
On appeal, defendant, who is now represented by counsel, does not contest the merits of the contempt finding but asserts that the judgment should be reversed because the court lacked subject-matter jurisdiction to hear the case. The gravamen of defendant's argument on appeal is that the court erred in concluding that it had subject-matter jurisdiction under the general contempt statutes, ORS chapter 33, because, according to defendant, "[t]he inherent authority of courts to enforce their own orders does not extend to enforcing other courts' orders" and "there was no evidence that [the transfer of the case to Multnomah County] comported with the requirements of the transfer statute," ORS chapter 25. He contends that his challenge to the court's subject-matter jurisdiction is preserved. Specifically, in his first assignment of error, he contends that the court erred "by denying [his] motion to
The question that defendant raises on appeal was not preserved in the trial court. Although defendant repeatedly challenged in the proceedings below the court's jurisdiction generally and the state's authority to make a claim against him, as we understand it, the substance of defendant's argument was that no Oregon state court had jurisdiction over him in this matter, not that Multnomah County Circuit Court was the wrong court; that is, defendant certainly did not argue below, as he does on appeal, that Multnomah County Circuit Court did not have subject-matter jurisdiction under the general contempt statutes in ORS chapter 33 because the child support order had been entered in Clackamas County and was not properly transferred to Multnomah County under ORS chapter 25.
Nonetheless, as defendant points out, the question of the court's subject-matter jurisdiction can be raised at any time, even for the first time on appeal. See, e.g. , Daly and Daly ,
"if a party seeking *** enforcement of an order or judgment for the payment of money files a certificate to the effect that aparty is presently in another county of this state, the court may, upon motion of the party, order that certified copies of the files, records and prepared transcripts of testimony in the original proceeding be transmitted to the clerk of the circuit court of any county in this state in which the obligee or obligor resides, or in which property of the obligor is located." 5
ORS 25.110(1), in turn, provides, in part:
"Upon receipt of such certified copies referred to in ORS 25.100, the circuit court of the county to which such certified copies have been transmitted shall have jurisdiction to compel compliance with such order or judgment the same as if it were the court which made and entered the original order or judgment for the payment of support."
Defendant contends that, here, "there was no evidence showing that the transfer occurred consistently with the procedures necessary to vest subject matter jurisdiction
Affirmed.
Notes
As defendant acknowledges, he has paid only $201.48 in child support over the history of the case, and he owed $27,540 in arrears at the time of the contempt proceedings. He had been found in contempt, placed on probation, and had violated probation several times before the current proceeding. His child who is the subject of the support obligation reached the legal age of majority in 2015.
For example, defendant asserted at his arraignment that the court had "a fictitious account of my name on a paper, and I'm here to resolve that matter, and I'm not affiliated with the state." In his "Jurisdictional Challenge" affidavit, defendant asserted, "I am a man, not a corporation or a legal 'person' " and "I do not consent to this matter, and waive any stated or unstated benefit privilege. If I am here at all, I am here in special appearance to challenge jurisdiction and have this matter dismissed." He also demanded that the "prosecution and the court *** prove jurisdiction in light of," among other things, "[p]roof of jurisdiction, appearing on the record that the defendant is subject to commercial law and or the Uniform Commercial Code." (Boldface omitted.) The signature page included the notation "All Rights Reserved, UCC 1 -308/1-207," and defendant signed his name "Sui Juris" and provided a "postal service address" indicating "zip exempt." (Boldface omitted.) See James Erickson Evans, Comment, The "Flesh and Blood" Defense ,
The court concluded that "the subject matter, the jurisdiction of the Court is invoked when under Chapter 33 of the Oregon Revised Statute[s] when the State files a proceeding to have you held in Contempt. That gives the Court subject matter jurisdiction."
We refer to the versions of ORS 25.100 and ORS 25.110 in effect at the time of these proceedings. Those statutes have since been amended. See Or. Laws 2017, ch. 252, §§ 3, 6.
The remaining subsections establish that the certified copies are "auxiliary" to those maintained in the original county, which remains the official record; that the original of an order entered in the auxiliary county be maintained in that county and a certified copy forwarded to the original county; and that the file number assigned in the original county "be the reference number for all purposes." ORS 25.100(2)-(4).
Defendant also contends that, even assuming the state presented some evidence of an effective transfer of the order to Multnomah County, we cannot consider ORS chapter 25 as providing a basis for the court's jurisdiction because the state did not raise the application of that chapter below, and its application does not meet the prerequisites for us to affirm the trial court on a right for the wrong reason basis. Defendant cannot have it both ways: If this indeed is a matter of the court's subject-matter jurisdiction, and thus can be considered for the first time on appeal, we are not constrained in the arguments that we consider to resolve that question.
To the extent that defendant argues that the transfer was ineffective because the trial court indicated that it did not have the complete case file, defendant misconstrues the record. What the court said was that the "electronic record" before the court was not complete because, "apparently, the entire file wasn't scanned." However, the prosecutor told the court that she had obtained all of the Clackamas County orders from the Multnomah County Circuit Court's file room, and the electronic case register for the contempt case identifies a related enforcement case that includes an entry confirming receipt of a certified copy of the Clackamas County case file.