Family Support from Fugitive Fathers: A Proposed Amendment to Michigan’s Long Arm Statute

It is the purpose of this article to propose and discuss an amendment to Michigan’s long arm statute which will allow the entry of extraterritorial alimony, separate maintenance, or child support decrees when Michigan is the state of the marital domicile and the defendant-spouse cannot be located for personal service of process. A plaintiff employing the proposed provision in a divorce action will be able to seek alimony, separate maintenance, or support payments as if the defendant were before the court, and the court will have the authority to grant her the necessary relief. If and when the wife later finds her husband, she will be able to take immediate steps to enforce the order outstanding without having to employ the judicial system a second time to consider essentially the same case presented in the original divorce action. The need for such a provision becomes evident upon a brief review of remedies currently available to a wife deserted by her husband.