Monday, November 3, 2025
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Court of Appeal:
Judge Was Confused in Finding Woman Breached Order
Opinion Says Requirement That She Obtain Judge’s Permission Before Commencing Effort to Enforce Obligation to Make Back Spousal Support Payments Did Not Justify Denial of Her Request to Determine What Is Owed
By a MetNews Staff Writer
A Los Angeles Superior Court judge erred in denying with prejudice a woman’s fourth request for an order determining back spousal-support obligations on the ground that she had not abided by a requirement imposed 23 years earlier to seek leave of the court before launching an enforcement effort, the Court of Appeal for this district has held, pointing out that seeking such permission was precisely what the ex-wife was doing.
She was, the appeals said in an unpublished opinion filed Thursday, asking the court to calculate how much her ex-husband owed her and, once having done that, to authorize her to try to collect the sum that was set.
Justice Natalie P. Stone of Div. Seven authored the opinion. It reverses an Oct. 31, 2023 order by Judge Bradley S. Phillips denying a request by Mindy Chapman to pinpoint the amount, if any, of arrearages.
Chapman—who was identified earlier in the long-running litigation as “Mindy Shapiro”—claims that back-alimony obligation of her ex-husband, Dr. Michael Shapiro, amounts, with interest, to more than $1 million.
In denying the motion, Phillips explained:
“The Court found that Petitioner failed to comply with the Court’s orders from September 22, 2000, which ordered that Petitioner, by and through her counsel of record, if any, shall obtain leave of court before filing any future involuntary enforcement or judgment proceedings to recover spousal support arrearages against Respondent.”
Two Matters ‘Conflated’
Stone wrote that Phillips “conflated a request to determine arrearages with an enforcement action to recover any arrearages,” adding:
“A request to determine arrearages is not, by itself, an attempt to enforce an underlying support obligation. Such a request calls upon the family court’s authority to determine whether any arrearages exist on the support obligation and, if so, the amount due.”
She elaborated:
“Nothing in Chapman’s request indicates she was seeking to enforce the spousal support obligation through her filing. Rather, she simply requested permission to do so if the court determined any arrearages were owed. This was consistent with the prior court order requiring Chapman to obtain leave before commencing any enforcement effort. The family court’s contrary finding is erroneous and could not serve as a basis for the denial of Chapman’s request.”
Second Ground
Phillips had an additional basis for denying the request, setting forth:
“The Court found that Petitioner failed to comply with the Court’s orders from June 8, 2022, in which Petitioner was ordered to fully comply (without objection) to Discovery and pay Respondent sanctions in the form of attorney’s fees in the amount of $3,060.00.”
Stone declared:
“It was premature to order terminating sanctions without, at a minimum, giving Chapman an opportunity to respond to Shapiro’s pending discovery requests regarding the fourth request for order. Nor could the court base its decision solely on Chapman’s failure to pay prior monetary sanctions.”
The jurist pointed out:
“This opinion shall not be interpreted to impose limits on the family court’s ability under the law to control the proceedings before it and ensure its prior orders are fully complied with.”
Three previous attempts by Chapman had failed because, although the ex-wife was to receive permanent spousal support, payments were to be reduced by the amount of her income, which she had not divulged.
The case is Marriage of Chapman and Shapiro, B335617.
Simi Valley attorney Michael D. Kwasigroch represented Chapman on appeal, as he had in the trial court and in a recent bankruptcy proceeding. Certified family law and appellate specialist Claudia Ribet of Complex Appellate Litigation Group LLP’s downtown office joined with Jennifer Ann Teaford of that firm’s San Francisco office and with Woodland Hills attorney Leon E. Bennett in acting for Shapiro.
Relationship to Murder
CBS News, on “48 Hours,” recited in a retrospective on Feb. 3, 2000, that Shapiro, “a wealthy orthopedic surgeon,” had carried on an affair with a patient, Jean Adair. Her husband, Robert Adair, was brutally murdered on Nov. 5, 1996, and, according to the report:
“Dr. Shapiro says that his wife was involved in the murder. Mindy Shapiro says that Jean Adair did it. Jean Adair blames the murder on Mindy Shapiro.”
Jean Adair was tried for murder and acquitted in 1999, with jurors apparently believing her version that an intruder beat and bound her and, when her husband arrived home, killed him. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge L. Jeffrey Wiatt (who was to commit suicide in 2005) shortly after the verdict granted Adair’s petition for a finding of factual innocence, but the Court of Appeal for this district reversed.
On Jan. 30, 2003, the California Supreme Court, in an opinion by then-Justice Janice Rogers Brown (now retired), agreed with the Court of Appeal that factual innocence was not clearly established.
Brown recited that “[p]rosecution witnesses testified that Robert received two telephone calls at work from defendant” shortly before the slaying, “at least one of which came when she claimed to be bound and gagged.” The then-justice noted:
“Dr. Michael Shapiro, defendant’s orthopedic surgeon with whom she was having an extramarital affair, also may have received a call from her at his office about the same time.”
She continued:
“As to motive, both personal and financial, the prosecution presented evidence of defendant’s extramarital affair with Shapiro, whom she wanted to be with if she could ‘get rid of Robert.’…
“The defense took several tacks. Shapiro and his wife, Mindy, had recently begun divorce proceedings, apparently precipitated in large measure by his affair with defendant. Mindy was angry and vindictive and had stolen defendant’s medical records and perhaps impersonated her over the telephone. Mindy had also talked about killing or severely injuring defendant and knew an alleged ex-convict in Las Vegas with ties to organized crime.”
The matter of who murdered Robert Adair remains unresolved.
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