Perjury on Petition grounds for dismissal?

Question

In a family court matter, a petitioner for more support funds completed a form, signed it (perjury?) certifying he was a resident in a county he does not live in. Is the readily provable false statement grounds for dismissal?

The state is New York, and I am not a party to the action. I am curious how to attack this type of situation. I could not find anything in Siegel's New York Practice.

In summary, the application form (Petition) and applicant statement is impeached by their testimony on the form, under penalty of perjury. (I am not certain that the penalty of perjury statement is appropriate on such a form, but that is a different matter.) Certainly one could attack the credibility of the applicant, but I am curious if such an issue is more fundamental than that.

Answer 1

Misstating the truth is not perjury

Perjury is deliberately lying under oath to gain a material advantage.

For the situation you describe:

• You might be wrong and they actually do live where they say they do
• they might be wring and they genuinely think they live where they say they do, being wrong is not perjury
• it’s unlikely to administrate info in the form actually carries the penalty of perjury, it probably isn’t testimony
• unless it will positively and substantially affect the outcome of the case in their favour, it isn’t material
• You lack standing to interfere in the case in any event

If this were brought to the attention of the court the most likely outcome would that it would just be corrected.

Answer 2

If it is a family court matter, what country the person is from may not matter. Some judges will only focus on the relevant details.

The judge is the only one who can really decide if that is a big enough issue to the case, but if you are only trying to attack the other party for lying and the rest of the document is sound and makes legal sense, you may not prevail with that argument.

Answer 3

Generally speaking, the remedy if the county of residence was misstated would be a motion for change of venue, rather than dismissal or any other sanction. And, if a motion for change of venue was not filed, any objection to venue would be deemed waived.

Lack of residence in a state might impair one's legal rights, but it is hard to see how misstating for some reason, one's county of residence is material, or how you would prove it was intentional. Only an intentional and material misstatement is punishable as perjury, and, in practice, perjury prosecutions are exceedingly rare.

For example, I recently encountered a divorce case filed in a county other than a county of residence simply because someone was mistaken about the county that they lived in, which happens all the time because county lines are not very familiar to many people.

Answer 4

I'm not sure about in New York. In Nevada, apparently

"Lying parties and their witnesses also are shielded from civil liability for the closely related torts of slander and libel for falsehoods committed during a judicial proceeding. The Restatement (First) of Torts ' 588 (1938), states: “A witness is absolutely privileged to publish false and defamatory matter of another in communications preliminary to a proposed judicial proceeding and as a part of a judicial proceeding in which he is testifying, if it has some relation thereto.” This privilege is meant to encourage witnesses to speak freely, and without fear of civil liability." - FindLaw Attorney Writers

So the best way to argue it successfully, would probably to somehow convince the judge that they are in contempt of court.