Rick
Waters and Carol Smith were married on November 1, 2001. After a six or seven
year marriage, Carol Smith Waters filed for divorce on December 2, 2007. On
July 13, 2008, a divorce Judgment was entered, the marriage ended. There are no
children from this marriage.
November
22, 2011, three years later - Rick is sitting at his desk and decides to open
the daily mail. He finds it intriguing that it's a letter from the Sacramento
Superior Court, family law division. To his astonishment, it's a court document
called a Findings and Order After Hearing stating his divorce has been
set-aside (set-aside is legal jargon meaning his divorce is null and voided).
He's no
longer divorced?? Huh? What? This is freaking unbelievable! What hearing???
He had not
heard from his ex-wife in three years and now he's no longer divorced? How
could this happen without him knowing about it?
Rick then
hired LEGWORK to find out how this happened and how he can get this court
decision overturned so that he is divorced - again.
Off to the
court house I go, pulling the case file and looking at every document Carol
filed. There is a document called an ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE (aka OSC, that she
hired some paralegal to prepare), asking the court to set-aside her marital
Judgment. She whines in this court document that she only has a GED, no college
or legal education experience, she didn’t know what she was doing when filing
for divorce back in 2007, and now wants the court to open the door so that
Carol can go after Rick for property and spousal support. There is a marital
settlement agreement originally signed by both of them in the file and all
original paperwork appears to be in order. After reading the entire file, the
lowdown is this: Carol had managed to somehow get six court hearings from the
Sacramento Superior Court without Rick's knowledge.
In the
last hearing Carol got the Judge to sign off on her request to set-aside her
divorce and this is the copy Rick received in the mail. What did Carol do in
all these court hearings? How did she or the court get away with not notifying
Rick of all these hearings?
Rick
swears he was never personally served or notified regarding any court hearing
and especially did not know about this ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE. He had no clue
Carol was even pursuing any legal action at all. Here are further facts from
the court file, read it and be warned, this is real injustice.
The first
court hearing after initially filing the OSC was set for January 4, 2011, in
Dept. 124 of the Family Law court.
Carol attends
this first hearing, and the Judge re-sets the hearing for a time in February
because there was no Proof of Service showing that Rick received any kind of
notification regarding this legal paper and hearing. Carol goes back to court
in February, and the Judge again re-sets the hearing in March because there was
again, no Proof of Service showing Rick had any notice of this hearing.
Carol goes
back to court in March, and again this hearing was re-set for April 25th,
because again, there was no proof of service. At the April hearing, Carol shows
up and again the Judge would not hear it due to there being no Proof of
Service. Another hearing date was then set for July 18, 2011.
In the
case file, each hearing has its own notes of what transpired each time. Carol,
in every hearing told the Judge that she cannot find Rick to serve him and
needs more time.
Rick had
no knowledge of any of these court appearances by Carol and definitely did not
know about the hearing in July.
From April
to July 18, 2011, a review of statements made by Carol in the case file, it
appears Carol engaged in filing false information, thus allowing the court to
believe certain things about Rick thus granting her what she wanted; she got
the court to set-aside her marital Judgment, without Rick having any knowledge
of this or a chance to defend himself.
Carol has
known the whole time where Rick's business is located (she worked there at one
time) and could have easily served Rick. His business is open to the public,
when you come into the store his desk is in public view.
One note
in the case file is definitely misleading to the court. Carol states she hired
a process server, some guy named Gary, to try and serve Rick the Order to Show
Cause. According to this process server, he stated in a Due Diligence
Declaration that he attempted to serve Rick at two different old addresses.
Carol
knows that Rick hasn't lived at these addresses for years and could have sent
the process server to his place of business.
At one of
these hearings, Carol speaks to the court about getting permission to publish a
document called APPLICATION & ORDER FOR SERVICE OF PUBLICATION. This is an
action where you can legally serve a person by publishing the legal document in
a newspaper. In this document she tells the court:
1. Carol
cannot locate Rick to serve him documents regarding the hearings. (false)
2. Rick
has some kind of outstanding legal action against him. (false)
3. Her
"only choice" to serve Rick is by publishing this notice in a paper
(false)
4. Carol
states that Rick “will continue to take action to avoid service.” (false)
Based on
these statements the court can only assume that Rick is avoiding service, that
he can’t be found, that he has some legal action against him from somewhere and
that he will continue to avoid this legal situation. (false)
Carol lies
to the Judge and he signs the ORDER on May 23, 2011, now allowing Carol to
publish this notice in the newspaper and she does so for four weeks in June, 2011.
Rick or
anyone else for that matter doesn't make it a habit to check the newspapers
everyday looking for this kind of legal notice in some small time newspaper.
Would you?
Carol knew
this notice would never be seen by Rick.
During
this publication period of four weeks, Carol hires another process serving
company. It is unknown why she would do this, she has already published, and
the court requires nothing else to be done.
There is
another time where Carol hired another process server, James. This process
server goes to Auburn, CA. address seven times. She has James sign a Due
Diligence Declaration that he went to this address and couldn’t find Rick. She
files this with the court on July 18, 2011.
At no time
did this process server come to Rick's work either.
July 18th,
in the Sacramento Superior Court, Dept. 124 @ 1:30 PM, without Rick's
knowledge, Carol tells the court Rick cannot be located and that she has no
idea where he is. Therefore the Judge rules that the divorce Judgment is
set-aside, issuing a FINDINGS AND ORDER AFTER HEARING, in her favor.
Carol then
goes further by getting some female friend to serve Rick by just mailing a copy
of this Findings and Order After Hearing. This female then signs a court
document stating Rick was served by mail. But again, Carol gives this person an
old address to mail it to. Rick has not lived there for almost a year but
luckily, this court order was forwarded to him at his work address and here we
are today.
Rick now
has to fill out court forms, obtain a hearing asking the court to set-aside the
Order and Findings after Hearing per CCP Code 473 and impose Sanctions per PC
271 on Carol for purposely misleading the court as to Rick's whereabouts,
including sanctions for causing him undue financial hardship for filing this
Motion, including attorney, paralegal and court fees.
In
situations like this, it would costs thousands of dollars to litigate this
mess. And sure enough, Rick decided after hearing what some attorney's and
mediation fees were, he asked me if I could further assist him. I told him I
wasn't an attorney but as a process server, I could use some of my skills and
see what happens.
The first
thing I did was prepare an Affidavit and several other Request for Hearing
documents (of all of the facts I have laid out so far), had Rick sign each one,
filed them all with the court and our hearing was set for January 15, 2012.
Now I need
to serve Carol with a copy of this and I am reminded of an old saying, “Keep
your friends close, and your enemy’s closer."
― Sun Tzu
I decided
to just telephone Carol, I have to serve her anyway, she can run but not hide,
and it makes sense to do this the simple way first. To my luck, she was
receptive, all too eager to meet, be the victim and tell me all about it.
Besides serving her, I wanted to find out what her beef really is and what her
strategy is going to be at the hearing in January.
As it
turns out, I met with Carol on two occasions. The first time we met, I served
her the legal papers so she can attend the hearing. She talked openly and I
noted her statements telling her I wanted to type up an Affidavit for her
signature, and we would get together again to make sure it was correct before I
filed it with the court.
I had no
intention of doing jack-crap with any Affidavit; I just wanted her strategy,
which is:
She wants
alimony from Rick.
She wants
the court to subpoena his bank accounts, financial records from his business
and other financial institutions, so she can show the court the amount of money
he is making.
She wants
equitable monies for all the property and business assets he has.
When we
met again, I pretended to give-a-hoot and let her read a quasi-affidavit I
typed up. Not to my surprise at all, she changes her story on certain
statements she had said to me previously. She’d say, “I didn’t mean that” or “I
think someone misunderstood” or “I want to think about whether or not I am
going to say that in the courtroom”. When I tried to confirm exactly what
statements she was going to make or what statements she possibly might make in the
courtroom, she stated repeatedly that she wants to “think about it”. Basically,
I could not get her to commit on what she was going to say, she was being
manipulative, evasive and well, you know, a b----.
Then Carol
decides to verbally tell me if Rick does not cooperate she might have to tell
the court and Judge the following: Rick told her after the divorce, he would
still take care of her, and they had sexual relations while she continued to
work for him in his business. She'll go on to tell the court Rick owes her for
the time he beat her up, which she had bruises and pictures of this abuse, and
that Rick hid $200,000 cash during the original divorce proceedings. All of
these accusations are false.
It was
really apparent now that Carol felt scorned and wanted revenge, and if she
keeps lying which she has done and continues to do, then these hearings will
never end. She'll make up lies why she can't show proof of abuse, "I lost
the pictures" or "my internet
provider is going to send me the emails" or "I need more time" or in
actuality, it's "I'm going to keep on lying and disrupt Rick's
life." It will be hearing after
hearing.
The one
thing I had going for me was she was very naive, she had no clue what the
repercussions were for lying to a Judge in a court room. Since I met her, I
found her to have no inkling of a conscious. Trying to pin her down about these
untrue statements, she just ignored them in a contempt manner.
These
hearings had to stop, this craziness had to stop. I have no pity when I find
that someone does not have a conscious. So I am going to call her bluff, show
her how the legal system really can work to bite her in the ass and teach her a
lesson.
I prepared
some subpoenas which forces Carol to come to the court hearing with documents
and pictures showing physical abuse.
I gave a
trial subpoena to all the process servers she hired so they can testify in
court that Carol purposely gave them Rick's old addresses so he could NOT be
found. I also gave a trial subpoena to a bookkeeper who knew Carol had worked
in Rick's business prior to the divorce, to testify that Carol knew where to
find Rick this whole time. I also subpoenaed Carol's mother, who knew where
Rick worked along with giving subpoena's to two other friends of Carol's, who
knew where Rick was working.
I served
Carol with all of these subpoenas, and she was pissed beyond belief. She went
into a screaming tirade, throwing the subpoenas everywhere and stalked off, threatening
to hire a lawyer.
I told
Rick that I have done what I can do within my process serving ability, and that
he may need a lawyer if she continues to lie and cause trouble. We won't know
until the court hearing in January.
In the
meantime, I filed another Affidavit with the court outlining Carol's
accusations and how they are false. There never was any physical abuse, much
less sexual relations after the divorce and neither was there $200,000 hidden
anywhere.
I checked
the court case file periodically up until the hearing date to see if Carol had
filed any more paperwork with the court, but there was nothing, so if anything
I got her to stop filing lies and distortions with the court. Rick prepared for
the worst, which she would attend the hearing, carry-on like a victim and we'll
be in court hearings forever, and he'll need to hire a very expensive lawyer.
Unbeknownst
to Carol, court Judges really don't have time to read every document that is
filed. Since Carol bought this action, she gets to go first at the hearing.
She'll start rambling and the judge won't have any idea what she is talking
about. I told Rick, do not say or do anything at the hearing unless the Judge
asks him a question, let Carol dig herself into a bigger hole.
JUDGMENT
DAY: January 20, 2012 - Sacramento Superior Court - 1:30 PM
Rick and I
show up along with the witnesses we subpoenaed. Carol shows up by herself and
does not look in our direction at all. After listening to three other cases
before us, it was Rick's turn; both he and Carol went up to their prospective
seats. The Judge looked over the file, took off his glasses, looked up at Carol
and said, "You go first Ms. Smith, what is going on here?"
To our
amazement, Carol made this statement. "In light of new discussions with my
family and counselor, I wish to withdraw my intentions to set-aside my divorce
judgment and actually re-instate my divorce". The Judge asked her if she
was absolutely sure she wanted to do this and if she is doing this under her
own determinism. She replied that she was. The Judge then stated to both Rick
and Carol that the original divorce judgment of July 13, 2008 was re-instated.
This hearing took less than five minutes!
I still
believe up to this day that the Judge had no time to read all the Affidavits,
not really knowing all the lies Carol told. If she had pursued this action,
then all her lies and perjury would have come to light resulting in some kind
of punishment. I also believe that the basis of the subpoenas and asking people
to testify threatened to expose Carol's lies. She was scared that she would get
caught for lying and obstructing justice.
Rick and I
left the courtroom, waited in the lobby for the bailiff to bring us some
paperwork, and while we were waiting, Carol left the courtroom and came into
the lobby, saw us and flipped us off as she went by. That's okay, we made our
point.
