State v. Hamilton

261 Wis.2d 458

2003 WI 50

661 N.W.2d 832

IN RE Elaine J. HAMILTON, Petitioner v. Walter Junior HAMILTON, Respondent:

STATE of Wisconsin, Petitioner-Respondent-Petitioner, v. Walter Junior HAMILTON, Respondent-Appellant.

No. 01-1014.

Supreme Court of Wisconsin.

Oral argument November 6, 2002.

Decided May 30, 2003.

For the petitioner-respondent-petitioner the cause was argued by Stephen J. Nicks, assistant attorney general, with whom on the brief was James E. Doyle, attorney general.

For the respondent-appellant there were briefs (in the court of appeals) by Robert A. Ramsdell, Madison, and oral argument by Robert A. Ramsdell.

¶ 1. DAVID T. PROSSER, J.

This is a review of a published decision of the court of appeals,¹ which reversed a Dane County Circuit Court decision denying Walter Junior Hamilton's (Walter) motion to dismiss the State's action to collect unpaid child support.

¶ 2. Walter was divorced in 1970 and ordered to pay child support for his two children. The child support judgment was amended in 1977. The State filed an independent action to collect Walter's child support arrearages in 2000, almost 30 years after the original judgment, more than 20 years after the amended judgment, and more than 15 years after Walter's youngest child reached the age of majority.

¶ 3. Walter's case raises questions about the application of statutes of limitations to child support collection actions. The issue presented is whether the State, as an assignee of Walter's deceased former wife, filed a timely action to collect child support arrearages in 2000. Payments missed between 1970 and June 30, 1980, are not at issue. See infra ¶ 13, n.8. Thus, the specific questions of law are: (1) Does Wis. Stat. § 893.40 (2001-2002)² apply to independent actions to collect child support not paid after July 1, 1980, and (2) if § 893.40 applies, when does the 20-year limitations period in the statute begin to run?

¶ 4. We hold that Wis. Stat. § 893.40, which became effective on July 1, 1980, governs the time within which a party may bring an independent action to collect child support arrearages that accumulated after the statute's effective date. In addition, we conclude that, under the statute, an action brought to enforce a child support judgment must be commenced within 20 years of the date when the judgment is entered. The period of limitation begins to run upon entry of judgment, irrespective of whether any payment under that judgment has been missed.

¶ 5. The last judgment ordering Walter to pay child support was entered on November 9, 1977. Consequently, the State had until November 9, 1997, to commence an action against Walter to collect arrears that accrued after July 1, 1980. Because the State's action to collect arrearages was not initiated until May 2000, it must be deemed untimely and barred under Wis. Stat. § 893.40.

I. BACKGROUND FACTS

¶ 6. The relevant facts of this case are not in dispute. Walter and Elaine Hamilton were divorced in Grant County on June 22, 1970, after approximately five years of marriage. The divorce judgment required Walter to make payments to Elaine every two weeks: $10.00 as alimony and $20.00 for each of their two children as child support. By 1977 Walter was residing in Dane County. On November 9, 1977, the Dane County Circuit Court entered an order amending the judgment, pursuant to a stipulation by the parties. This order expunged all alimony arrearages and eliminated Walter's future obligation to pay alimony, but it revised Walter's child support payments to a fixed sum of $50.00, to be paid every two weeks until further ordered by the court. The 1977 order was the last court order regarding child support directed at Walter prior to the commencement of this action.

¶ 7. The youngest Hamilton child reached the age of majority on April 4, 1985.³ From the date of the original divorce judgment in 1970 through April 1985, Walter failed to make a substantial number of child support payments.

¶ 8. Elaine died on June 7, 1989. She did not file any enforcement actions to collect on Walter's child support arrears before her death.

¶ 9. On May 22, 2000, the State filed a motion in Dane County Circuit Court requesting the court to order Walter to pay the child support arrearages and interest that had accumulated as of January 12, 2000. Specifically, the State sought $15,501.85 in child support arrearages and $10,948.50 in interest.⁴ In an accompanying affidavit, the State alleged that it was a real party in interest under Wis. Stat. § 767.075. Documents in the record show that the State was acting in part to recoup AFDC payments made to Elaine during periods when Walter was failing to pay child support.

¶ 10. In response to the State's motion, Walter argued that the statute of limitations for actions on judgments had expired and thus barred the State's action. A family court commissioner and the Dane County Circuit Court, Gerald C. Nichol, Judge, agreed that the 20-year statute of limitations in Wis. Stat. § 893.40 applied. Relying on case law interpreting and applying earlier statutes, the circuit court determined that the State's cause of action did not accrue until the date Walter and Elaine's youngest child reached the age of majority. This ruling made the State's action in 2000 timely, on the theory that the State had 20 years from April 4, 1985, the accrual date, to commence an action.

¶ 11. The circuit court remanded the matter to the family court commissioner, who ordered Walter to pay $15,024.85 in arrearages and $7,944.39 in interest. When the matter returned to the circuit court, the court affirmed the arrearage amount but expunged all existing and future interest because of the State's unreasonable delay in seeking enforcement.⁵ Walter was ordered to pay $100 per month toward the arrears, as well as an annual receiving and disbursement fee. The circuit court rejected Walter's renewed motion that it had lost jurisdiction because the State's claim had expired under the statute of limitations.⁶ Walter appealed.

¶ 12. On March 28, 2002, the court of appeals reversed the circuit court's decision. State v. Hamilton, 2002 WI App 89, ¶ 1, 253 Wis. 2d 805, 644 N.W.2d 243. Interpreting Wis. Stat. § 893.40, the court noted that a substantive change had been made in the law regarding the starting date of the 20-year time limit for actions on a judgment or decree. Id., ¶ 15. The court asserted that two distinct groups of missed child support payments were at issue in the case. Id., ¶¶ 7, 16. The court reasoned that § 893.40 applied to arrearages arising after its effective date of July 1, 1980, and that the statute of limitations began to run on these missed payments upon the entry of the last judgment in 1977. Id., ¶ 18. The court concluded that two former sections, Wis. Stat. §§ 893.14 and 893.16(1) (1977), governed the arrearages arising before July 1, 1980, inasmuch as the State had acquired a vested right "in the prior statute of limitations at the time the new statute became effective." Id., ¶¶ 17, 21.⁷ Hence, the 20-year-period in which to bring an action to collect the arrearages arising before July 1, 1980, did not end until June 30, 2000—a little more than one month after the State filed its action. Id., ¶ 17. Accordingly, the court of appeals found the State's action timely with respect to the pre-July 1, 1980, arrearages but untimely with respect to the arrearages accruing after that date. Id., ¶¶ 17, 19.

¶ 13. The State petitioned this court for review of that portion of the court of appeals' decision barring it from seeking payment on arrearages accumulating after July 1, 1980.⁸ We granted review to address this important, recurring issue in child support enforcement.

II. STANDARD OF REVIEW

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¶ 14. This case involves a determination of the appropriate statute of limitations to apply to an independent action to collect child support arrearages, as well as the interpretation and application of that statute. These matters present questions of law that we review de novo. Construction of a statute is a question of law that this court decides independently of the circuit court and the court of appeals, benefiting from their analyses. See Meyer v. School Dist. of Colby, 226 Wis. 2d 704, 708, 595 N.W.2d 339 (1999). Whether a statutory limitations period requires dismissal of an action where the underlying facts are not in dispute is also a question of law. See Smith v. Milwaukee County, 149 Wis. 2d 934, 937, 440 N.W.2d 360 (1989).

III. ANALYSIS

¶ 15. When the State filed its May 22, 2000, motion to order Walter to pay child support arrearages and interest, it was commencing an action on a judgment. The original judgment was the June 22, 1970, divorce judgment. The modified judgment was the November 9, 1977, order amending the original judgment.

¶ 16. Wisconsin Stat. § 893.40 prescribes the time within which a party may bring an action on a judgment:

Action on judgment or decree; court of record. Except as provided in s. 846.04(2) and (3), action upon a judgment or decree of a court of record of any state or of the United States shall be commenced within 20 years after the judgment or decree is entered or be barred.

¶ 17. This statute was enacted in 1980. See § 28, Ch. 323, Laws of 1979 (effective July 1, 1980). There is no dispute between the parties that § 893.40 applies to arrearages that occurred after July 1, 1980, because these arrearages accrued subsequent to the time when the old statute of limitations was repealed and the new statute took effect. Applying § 893.40 to the payments missed after July 1, 1980, conforms to Wis. Stat. §§ 990.06 and 991.07, first, because the limitation under the former statute had not yet "begun to run" before it was repealed, and, second, because a cause of action on payments not yet missed had not accrued under the former statute. The dispute in this case is about when the new statute began to run.

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¶ 18. The...