Section I, Professor Franks
Final Examination, Spring 1995
1. Carefully analyze the facts and grasp the issues in each question before beginning to write. Spend time reading the question slowly and carefully.
2. State the issues and answers to each question concisely. Lengthy answers are not necessary.
3. Do not repeat questions in your answers. Write neatly and legibly on only one side of each page.
4. Number your answers to correspond with the question, e.g., "II."
5. If you feel it necessary to assume additional facts in any of the questions, give the facts that must be added and state why.
6. Do not write in the margin of the book.
7. All major questions are equally weighted unless otherwise indicated. Subparts are approximately equal but may be weighted slightly differently according to the number of issues involved in that subpart.
8. Write your fictitious name and number and the name and section number of the course on which you are being examined on the cover of each examination book.
9. If you use more than one book, indicate "Book One," "Book Two" and so forth on the cover of each book and write your fictitious name and number and the name and section number of the course on the cover of each examination book.
10. A GOOD ANSWER IS NOT NECESSARILY A LONG ANSWER.
Following your graduation from Southern University Law Center, you are hired as a law clerk by the firm of Dewey Billum & Howe in Toomey, Louisiana. Your first client, Ben Dover, consults the firm for which you work. He tells you the following:
Ben Dover and his former wife, Ivana Cook, were married in Toomey, Louisiana, on May 15, 1973. The parties resided together in Toomey. Two children were born of the marriage: Stan Dover, born at Lake Charles on April 12, 1975, now age 20; and Mae Dover, born at Lake Charles on February 14, 1981, now age 14.
On April 18, 1989, the parties divorced in the Fourteenth Judicial District Court for the Parish of Calcasieu, State of Louisiana. The parties were awarded joint legal custody of their two children. Ivana received primary residential custody of little Mae, and Ben was awarded primary residential custody of Stan. The decree specified that the courts of Louisiana shall retain jurisdiction to modify custody and that Louisiana law shall apply to any modification.
On May 3, 1989, the parties entered into a written agreement under which Ivana obligated herself to pay the parties' MasterCard debt in the amount of $3,859.00, and Stan obligated himself to pay Ivana the sum of $250.00 per month for the support of Mae. No provision was made for the support of Stan.
At the time of the divorce, Ben was employed as a radio and television repairman in Toomey. At the time of the divorce, Ben was earning $26,960.00 per year. Ivana was unemployed.
Ben has just been served with a citation and a motion to modify the prior custody order, in which Ivana (now remarried and known as Ivana B. Rich) asks the 763rd Judicial District Court for the County of Orange, State of Texas, to: (1) modify custody so as to award Ivana sole managing conservatorship (the Texas term for custody) of Mae Dover; (2) increase child support to $675.00 per month; (3) award Ivana arrearages in the amount of $18,255.00 in unpaid back child support; and, (4) award Ivana attorney fees in the amount of $2,500.00. The citation gives your client until May 16, 1995, to file answer. A rule to show cause is set for hearing in Orange, Texas, at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, May 19, 1995.
Your client tells you that within a month or two following the 1989 divorce settlement, Ivana and little Mae moved to Orange, Texas. Ivana immediately took a job there as a legal secretary, earning $18,000.00 per year. Ever since the divorce, your client has always lived (and still does live) in Louisiana.
Your client admits he never paid one cent of child support, but he tells you that upon Ivana taking the job in Orange, he and his former wife agreed orally that each parent should support only the child in his or her own custody, and neither should pay child support to the other. The agreement was never reduced to writing, and Ivana now denies ever having made such an agreement.
Today, Ben is still employed as a television repairman in Toomey. He now makes $27,220.00 per year. Ivana still has her secretary's job in Orange, and now makes $19,000.00 per year.
Ivana never paid the MasterCard account.
A year ago, Stan graduated from high school, moved out of his dad's home, and got married. Earlier this year, Stan celebrated his twentieth birthday.
Your inquiries reveal that the citation was served upon your client by a Calcasieu Parish deputy sheriff at Ben's place of work in Toomey, Louisiana.
Your client Ben tells you that he goes to Texas every other weekend to pick up Mae and bring her back to Louisiana for visitation. Your client also is examined twice yearly by a proctologist at a medical clinic in Beaumont, Texas. In addition, every year since the divorce, your client has gone duck hunting in Oklahoma, driving through Texas on the way to Oklahoma and returning home to Louisiana through Texas.
Your client owns no property in Texas, and neither he nor his company services television sets or otherwise does repair work or business in Texas.
Your research discovers Texas Family Code § 11.051, which provides that the courts of Texas have jurisdiction over the parent-child relationship, including child support, where any one or more of the following applies:
(1) the child was conceived in Texas; (2) the child resides in Texas as a result of defendant's acts or directives or with the defendant's approval; (3) the defendant in the past has resided with the child in Texas. |