Thereafter, counsel for the relator appeared specially in the Circuit Court of Monongalia County and moved to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction on several grounds. Notice of this newly initiated proceeding was given in the form of a notice of motion and motion returnable September 26, 1979, which was mailed to the relator at his New Jersey address by certified mail, return receipt requested. Code § 48-2-15 by filing a motion in the Circuit Court of Monongalia County. *372 On September 14, 1979, counsel for the wife initiated modification proceedings in West Virginia pursuant to W.Va. At this stage of the procedure it might be considered a fugitive document although it might be pleaded below as a change in circumstances. It is fair to say that the record does not reveal the imprimatur of any court upon the agreement entered into in New Jersey except that the relator pleads it. The court entered an order dealing exclusively with the relator's visitation rights. If this agreement was presented to the Judge of the Superior Court of New Jersey, the record neither shows that he acted upon it nor that he incorporated any of its specific provisions. This civil action resulted in an agreement between the parties disposing of the matters raised in the complaint. The New Jersey complaint also alleged that the relator had failed to comply in other respects with the West Virginia divorce decree, and had willfully converted certain jointly-owned assets. In March 1976, the wife instituted an action in the Superior Court of New Jersey, Chancery Division, Ocean County, New Jersey, seeking to enforce the West Virginia divorce decree and to collect accrued alimony and child support payments. The circuit court had personal jurisdiction over the parties, and by its decree awarded custody of the two minor children to the wife, and ordered the husband to pay alimony and support.įollowing the divorce, the wife moved to Florida with the two children, where they have continued to reside, and the husband completed his medical education at West Virginia University, left this State, and opened medical practice in the State of New Jersey, where he currently resides. Throughout the divorce proceedings and at the time of the entry of the decree, both parties were residents of Monongalia County. Melvyn (husband) and Judy (wife) Ravitz were divorced by a decree of the Circuit Court of Monongalia County entered in October 1975. Fox, II, sitting specially as Judge of the Monongalia County Circuit Court, from proceeding further upon a motion by relator's former wife for review and modification of a divorce decree. In this original prohibition proceeding, the relator, Melvyn Ravitz, seeks an order prohibiting the respondent, Fred L. Joseph Zak, Preiser & Wilson, Charleston, for relator.Ĭlark B. Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia. FOX, II, Judge of the Circuit Court of Marion County, West Virginia (Division II), Sitting Specially As Judge of the Circuit Court of Monongalia County, West Virginia.