Court of Appeals January 17, 2025 Minutes
Jessica Allgeier v. Jeffrey Wagner, No. 2024-CA-0496-MR
Jefferson Circuit Court http://opinions.kycourts.net/COA/2024-CA-000496.PDF
COURT OF APPEALS DETERMINES APPROPRIATE VENUE FOR WIFE’S CLAIM RELATED TO HUSBAND’S BUSINESS
Wife and Husband filed for divorce in Jefferson Family Court in 2013, and a decree was subsequently entered. In 2024, Wife filed a complaint in Jefferson Circuit Court containing several causes of action regarding the mismanagement and misappropriation of funds received by Husband through his car wash business, and one cause of action seeking civil damages for Husband’s interference of Wife’s custody of their two children. Husband filed a motion to dismiss, wherein he argued the Circuit Court lacked jurisdiction over Wife’s claims because they arose out of the former marriage and were the subject(s) of ongoing litigation in Jefferson Family Court. The Circuit Court issued an order concluding that, because these issued stemmed from a divorce that had been pending in Jefferson Family Court for over eleven years, it did lack subject-matter jurisdiction and dismissed the action.
Wife appealed, arguing that the Circuit Court had exclusive authority to adjudicate her claims, because she sought money damages based on Husband’s civil liability. The Court of Appeals ruled the Family Court was the appropriate forum for the resolution of Wife’s claims, but that the correct disposition of the matter was not dismissal but rather transfer of the matter to family court for further adjudication, be that dismissal or resolution of the issues on their merits.
In support of its order, the Court explained that it was unnecessary to decide whether the Circuit Court lacked subject-matter jurisdiction, because it was clear that the general jurisdiction of a family court as provided by Ky. Const. § 112(6) (one or more divisions of a Circuit Court may be designated as a Family Court division, which shall retain the general jurisdiction of the Circuit Court and have jurisdiction of other matters) extends beyond the specific areas of jurisdiction outlined in KRS 23A.100, which states that the Family Court division shall be the primary forum for cases in that section. While it acknowledged that the cited statutes were not intended to limit the jurisdiction of the Circuit Court, the Court felt that applying the statute the way it did ensured the purposes underlying the creation of the family courts – that domestic cases proceed there – were respected.
Carter Anderson
