Section 24.39 Revival of Judgments

• Library: Family Law Deskbook and 2014 Supp

X. (§24.39) Revival of Judgments

Section 516.350.1, RSMo Supp. 2004, provides in pertinent part:

1. Every judgment, order or decree . . . except for any judgment, order, or decree awarding child support or maintenance or dividing pension, retirement, life insurance, or other employee benefits in connection with a dissolution of marriage, legal separation or annulment which mandates the making of payments over a period of time or payments in the future, shall be presumed to be paid and satisfied after the expiration of ten years from the date of the original rendition thereof . . . or in case a payment has been made on such judgment, order or decree, and duly entered upon the record thereof, after the expiration of ten years from the last payment so made, and after the expiration of ten years . . . such judgment shall be conclusively presumed to be paid, and no execution, order or process shall issue thereon, nor shall any suit be brought, had or maintained thereon for any purpose whatever . . . .

Section 516.350.2 determines the time in which a judgment may be enforced. Failure to revive a judgment within the ten-year period provided by § 516.350.2 will bar a party’s ability to enforce the judgment after the statutory ten-year period has passed. Hanff v. Hanff, 987 S.W.2d 352 (Mo. App. E.D. 1999).

In Hanff, the first wife filed an action against the second wife to recover pension funds, life insurance proceeds, and past due maintenance that the decedent husband was ordered to pay to the first wife under a dissolution decree entered 13 years before. The first wife had not revived the decree before the lapse of the 10-year time period, and the husband had not made any maintenance payments to the first wife and had named the second wife as beneficiary on his pension and life insurance. The court found that, absent revival of the decree, the first wife could not collect pension benefits and insurance proceeds more than 10 years after the decree was entered. Id.

In Starrett v. Starrett, 24 S.W.3d 211 (Mo. App. E.D. 2000), the former wife filed a motion for contempt and to enforce the parties’ dissolution decree that was entered 11 years earlier. In the decree, the wife had been awarded half of the husband’s military pension, and the husband was ordered to maintain the wife as the survivor beneficiary on his pension. The husband subsequently remarried and named his second wife as the survivor beneficiary. The court ruled that, because the judgment had not been...