The Third Department determined Family Court did not have subject matter jurisdiction over the support enforcement proceeding because no petition had been filed. The support magistrate had erroneously treated a request by Florida to register the Florida support judgment in New York as an “enforcement petition:”
The Uniform Interstate Family Support Act (see Family Ct Act art 5-B) provides that “[a] registered support order issued in another state . . . is enforceable in the same manner and is subject to the same procedures as an order issued by a tribunal of this state” (Family Ct Act § 580-603 [b]). In New York, proceedings for the violation of a support order “shall be originated by the filing of a petition containing an allegation that the respondent has failed to obey a lawful [support] order,” and Family Court lacks subject matter jurisdiction to determine a violation claim without that petition (Family Ct Act § 453 … ). DSS was free to, and eventually did, file a petition alleging that the father had failed to comply with the support provisions contained in the 2014 judgment (see Family Ct Act §§ 453 [a]; 580-603 [b]). This proceeding did not arise out of that petition, however, and was not rendered viable by its filing … . Family Court accordingly lacked subject matter jurisdiction to render the appealed-from order, and “the claim that a court lacked subject matter jurisdiction ‘may be raised at any time and may not be waived'” … . Matter of Pudvah v Pudvah, 2019 NY Slip Op 03414, Third Dept 5-2-19