How would you like the Judge to tune you up for $197,812.00 in contempt, plus interest????

If you don’t listen to the Judge or you are stupid enough to lie to the Judge, that’s what will happen.

Drake Lewis and Tonia Lewis were getting a divorce.

This was not a friendly divorce by any means.

This case has been appealed several times and the latest appeal, the Mississippi Supreme Court note the trial judge said this about Drake Lewis:

This Court is well aware that this is a factual determination that it made
based upon the evidence presented to it, under oath, at the initial trial of this matter.  Propriety of venue was established by the testimony at the first trial.
No objection to venue was made at the trial.  No objection to venue was raised in the first appeal.  No objection to venue was made at the retrial of this matter.  No issue of venue was raised in the second appeal.

. . .
Again, there is the question of credibility.  For Drake Lewis to now
claim after having affirmatively led this Court to find that it had proper venue because he never resided in Biloxi is unbelievable.

He left Tonia Lewis and Jackson County in June of 2006 and moved to Biloxi, and remained there until he moved in with his paramour in Ocean Springs, Jackson County, Mississippi in January 2007.

When a Judge writes something like this about you, you know it is going to be bad.

Trust me on that one.

What it means in English is Drake said he lived in Jackson County, Mississippi when this divorce was filed with the Harrison County Chancery Court.

So in Drake’s mind, the case should have never been in Harrison County.

The problem with this was, as the Judge pointed out, Drake had already told the Court that he lived in Harrison County, Mississippi.

Listen, most Judges aren’t stupid.

Heck, even the stupid Judges can recognize when you told them one thing and then later say something else.

I’m not sure how Drake thought he could get away with this.

The trial judge then looked at the fact that he already had Ordered Drake to pay $132,812.00 in a divorce settlement and Drake never paid what the Judge told him to pay.

The Judge pointed out that Drake had the money when this was ordered but he just never paid his ex-wife.

This isn’t going to go over well when you ignore what a Judge says.

So, the Judge tells Drake he must pay $197,812.00 or he’s going to get held in contempt.

The Judge adds on interest.

The case went to the Mississippi Supreme Court and this is what they said:

Section 93-5-11 of the Mississippi Code says,

If the defendant be a resident of this state, the complaint shall be filed in
the county in which such defendant resides or may be found at the time, or in the county of the residence of the parties at the time of separation, if the plaintiff be still a resident of such county when the suit is instituted.

The Supreme Court also noted that Drake make efforts to hide assets and income.

This is just not smart.

So, the Supreme Court agreed with the trial judge and found that Drake lived in Harrison County, Mississippi when the divorce was filed.

Here’s where it gets interesting as a lawyer, because the Supreme Court held that Drake could “waive subject-matter jurisdiction.”  In the Court’s words, it held, “We recognize that before the 2005 amendment this Court consistently found that Section 93-5-11 could not be waived as it vested subject-matter jurisdiction over divorce actions in the chancery courts.

Today, we overrule these past cases to the extent that they hold that Section 93-5-11 confers subject-matter jurisdiction on chancery courts.

Subject-matter jurisdiction is conveyed by the Mississippi Constitution. Section 93-5-11 governs the venue of a divorce action and limits the chancery court’s exercise of personal jurisdiction over the defendant.

The Mississippi Rules of Civil Procedure control the procedure to be utilized when venue is improper.  Additionally, even if the venue argument was correct, the appropriate remedy would have been transfer of the matter to Jackson County.  M.R.C.P. 82(d). Rule 82(d), explicitly incorporated by Section 93-5-11’s amendment, allows the court to transfer an action only“on timely motion.”

What all that legal mumbo jumbo means is Drake waited 8 years to file a Motion to Transfer his case to Jackson County, Mississippi, and that is way too late.

So, the lesson is, as I’ve said before, LISTEN TO THE JUDGE or you will see someone like this picture ready to smack you around!

Listen to the Judge!