Sousa v. Sousa

Plaintiff appeals, upon the court's grant of his petition for certification, from the judgment of the Appellate Court reversing the judgment of the trial court denying a motion of defendant to vacate a prior judgment by Judge Resha which "modified, by stipulation, a portion of the judgment of dissolution that ordered that the plaintiff’s pension benefits be divided equally between the parties." The court concluded that: (1) given a conflict in the case law on point and the Superior Court’s plenary jurisdiction over family relations matters, the Appellate Court improperly determined that it was ‘"entirely obvious" that Judge Resha lacked subject matter jurisdiction to modify the property distribution in the judgment of dissolution; and (2) considerations of finality of judgments, as set forth in section 12 of the Restatement (Second) of Judgments, do not support permitting defendant to mount a collateral attack on the modified judgment. Accordingly, the court reversed the judgment of the Appellate Court. View "Sousa v. Sousa" on Justia Law