Waldenville v. Waldenville
WD84211
Filed September 7, 2021
Appeal from the Circuit Court of Platte County to Missouri Court of Appeals – Western District
H. Waldenville, (hereinafter “Wife”) filed for divorce from S. Waldenville, (hereinafter “Husband”) filed for divorce in March of 2020. In November of 2020, Wife filed a Motion for Temporary child support and Husband was ordered to pay $1,229.00/month (with $563.00/month in arrearage until paid in full) to Wife in child support and pay Wife $4,000.00 in attorney’s fees.
On May 19, 2021, the circuit court issued its final judgment on the parties’ dissolution of marriage. The final judgment on the dissolution of marriage incorporated and continued the terms of the temporary support order, and also added other additional obligations.
The issue on appeal is whether or not the Appellate Court has jurisdiction to hear this appeal. The law in the state of Missouri, is quite clear. A temporary – aka pendente lite judgment – is considered an appealable judgment in Missouri. Furthermore, the Appellate opinion noted that “our [Missouri] Supreme Court rejected that practice on the grounds that a dissolution of marriage proceeding raises a single claim, and ‘the division of property, child custody, and support’ are merely issues to that claim. Id. at 305. Therefore, the Court found that issues like non-temporary support may not be resolved in a piecemeal manner outside the final judgment on the dissolution of marriage.”
In order for the Appellate Court to be able to hear an appeal, “. . . judgments and final judgments must be denominated as such under Rule 74.01 to be appealable, which did not occur in this case. Meadowfresh Sols. USA, LLC v. Maple Grove Farms, LLC, 578 S.W.3d 758, 762 (Mo. banc 2019).”
In the present case, Husband did not denominate the judgment under Rule 74.01. Furthermore, the Appellate Court held that “Even if, arguendo, we did have jurisdiction, we would still have to dismiss. Since Husband filed this appeal, the circuit court held a trial and issued a final, appealable judgment on the parties’ dissolution of marriage, which includes an order of child support that supersedes the temporary support order at issue in each of Husband’s points on appeal.” See Laubinger v. Laubinger, 5 S.W.3d 166, 175 (Mo. App. 1999).
Appeal dismissed.
