Matter of Henson

Chris Henson (defendant) and Gina Henson (plaintiff) divorced in 1991, at which time they lived in Kansas with their three children. The district court awarded primary custody to Gina and ordered Chris to pay $226 and later $300 per month in child support as well as 50 percent of the children’s medical expenses. Later, Chris moved to California. When Gina became aware of the move in 1994, she filed an action under the Uniform Reciprocal Enforcement of Support Act (URESA), which enabled states to modify child-support obligations created in other states. In 1995, Kansas replaced URESA with the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act (UIFA), which limited jurisdiction for child-support orders to one state at a time, though URESA remained effective in California. The Kansas child-support order was registered in California, which issued an order of its own. In 1996, California increased Chris’s monthly obligation to $948 at Gina’s request. By 2002, Chris had made another unannounced move—this time to Colorado—and was making only semi-regular payments. In 2005, the Kansas court found Chris in default and assessed arrearages of more than $70,000—an amount that incorporated calculations from the California order. Colorado registered the support order in 2006. Chris appealed the Kansas district court’s decisions concerning default and arrearages, arguing that the Full Faith and Credit for Child Support Orders Act (FFCCSOA) of 1994—which had an effect similar to UIFA—had preempted California’s jurisdiction, thus voiding the 2005 default judgment.