Case Title: Lorenzo v. Lorenzo

Citation: 512 P.2d 65, 85 N.M. 305

Docket Number: 

State: new-mexico

Court: New Mexico Supreme Court

Date: 1973-07-13T00:00:00Z

Document:
512 P.2d 65 (1973) 85 N.M. 305 Carmen LORENZO, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Louis LORENZO, Defendant-Appellee. No. 9535. Supreme Court of New Mexico. July 13, 1973. *66 Kastler & Erwin, John P. Davidson, Raton, for plaintiff-appellant. Gallagher & Ruud, Marchiondo & Berry, Albuquerque, for defendant-appellee. MONTOYA, Justice. The parties hereto were married in 1946, and in June 1968, while residing in the State of Oklahoma plaintiff-appellant (appellant) and defendant-appellee (appellee) were separated. Subsequently, appellant assumed residency in New Mexico, while appellee remained in Oklahoma. Thereafter, in February 1969, appellee procured a divorce from appellant in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico. The Mexican decree provided various support and property settlement provisions. In November 1970, appellant brought suit in the courts of New Mexico against appellee, seeking a divorce, child support, division of community property, support and alimony, and attorney's fees. Appellee answered, asserting that the complaint failed to state a claim and submitted the defense that appellant had previously acquiesced in a divorce procured in Mexico and was bound thereby. At the close of the evidence presented by appellant, appellee moved to dismiss the complaint, which motion was granted by the court. Apparently this dismissal was entered pursuant to § 21-1-1(41)(b), N.M.S.A., 1953 Comp., though there is no direct citation to that effect in the record. In ruling on a motion to dismiss made at the close of appellant's case, the trial court is not required to view appellant's *67 evidence in its most favorable light, but rather to weigh all evidence and give it the weight it deserves. Komadina v. Edmondson, 81 N.M. 467, 468 P.2d 632 (1970). However, evidence which is unimpeached and uncontradicted may not be disregarded, and findings diametrically opposed thereto lack support. Frederick v. Younger Van Lines, 74 N.M. 320, 393 P.2d 438 (1964). Appellant argues that the trial court did in fact disregard evidence which is unimpeached and uncontradicted and that the judgment is not supported by substantial evidence. Those findings challenged on appeal are summarized as follows: Appellant also challenges the conclusions of the trial court that the Mexican divorce decree is entitled to "full faith and credit" in the State of New Mexico; that appellee at the time of the Mexican decree was a bona fide resident of Mexico; that appellant, by acquiescing in the Mexican decree, is estopped or has allowed "laches" to bar her from asserting the invalidity of the Mexican decree; and that she is not entitled to alimony, has received 100% of the community property, and should pay her own attorney's fees. We are faced with two questions: (1) Whether recognition should be given to the decree of divorce granted by a Mexican court, when attacked on the ground that one or both parties were not domiciled in the country granting the divorce; and (2) whether the decree should be recognized under the doctrines of estoppel, laches, unclean hands, or like equitable principles. In the Annot. 13 A.L.R.3d 1419 entitled "Domestic Recognition of Divorce Decree Obtained in Foreign Country and Attacked for Lack of Domicil or Jurisdiction of Parties," the general rule is stated at 1425: See cases cited therein. This is the rule adhered to in Golden v. Golden, 41 N.M. 356, 68 P.2d 928 (1937), and recognized in Ferret v. Ferret, 55 N.M. 565, 237 P.2d 594 (1951). In Golden, supra, a divorce was obtained in Mexico by both spouses on a one-day trip to that country. The husband subsequently remarried. Sometime later the wife sued for a divorce in New Mexico, contending that the Mexican decree was invalid. The court therein held, rejecting the husband's arguments that the Mexican divorce was valid, or that the wife was estopped by her conduct from attacking the validity of that divorce, that (1) neither *68 party had established a "residence" in Mexico under any known definition of residence; (2) that the first essential for the validity of a decree of divorce is that it should be pronounced by a competent court of jurisdiction with at least one of the parties being a bona fide subject of that jurisdiction; (3) that, therefore the Mexican decree was wholly invalid, and to give it recognition and effect would be contrary to New Mexico's public policy; and (4) that although the husband had remarried, the wife had received no material benefit under the purported Mexican divorce and, under equitable principles, she should not be estopped to challenge its validity. Though Golden, supra, concerned a bilateral divorce decree, an ex parte divorce, based on the petitioning spouse's physical presence in the divorcing nation and notice to, or constructive service upon an absent defendant spouse are within the rule denying recognition to foreign divorce decrees procured without a showing of domicile by at least one spouse. See Wells v. Wells, 230 Ala. 430, 161 So. 794 (1935); Estate of Nolan, 56 Ariz. 361, 108 P.2d 388 (1940); Bethune v. Bethune, 192 Ark. 811, 94 S.W.2d 1043, 105 A.L.R. 814 (1936), and Sohnlein v. Winchell, 230 Cal. App. 2d 508, 41 Cal. Rptr. 145 (1964). In the instant case, the court found that appellee acquired a residence in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico, on December 17, 1968, and resided there until December 27, 1968, when he filed a petition for divorce against the appellant, a copy of which was served upon the appellant on January 9, 1969, in Raton, New Mexico. A decree of divorce was entered in the Mexican court on February 20, 1969, the provisions of which have apparently been complied with by appellee. However, the record in this case with respect to the residence of the appellee, as reflected by his own testimony, reveals that he lived in McAlester, Oklahoma; was employed by the federal government as a coal mine inspector; that he flew from Oklahoma to Mexico, rented lodging for the period of two weeks, which was also a vacation, and listed his attorney's address as his own. The following excerpts from testimony by appellee are significant under questioning by appellant's counsel: As heretofore pointed out, the trial court found that appellee had acquired a bona fide legal residence in Mexico and concluded, as a matter of law, that the Mexican divorce decree was final and binding upon the parties and entitled to full faith and credit in New Mexico. In resolving the attack being made herein upon the validity of the Mexican decree, we need only to look at our decision in Golden v. Golden, *69 supra, where we said (41 N.M. 364, 68 P.2d 932): We also quoted approvingly from an early Wisconsin case as follows (41 N.M. 366-67; 68 P.2d 934): We have, as recently as 1967, followed the rule announced in Golden, supra, regarding the question of jurisdiction to grant a decree. In Heckathorn v. Heckathorn, 77 N.M. 369, 423 P.2d 410 (1967), we quoted from Golden as follows (77 N.M. 373, 423 P.2d 412): *70 We recognize that in this review of the record, to determine if the findings made by the trial court are supported by substantial evidence, we must view the evidence in its most favorable light to support the court's findings. However, we are also mindful of the test that is applicable when weighing uncontradicted testimony which is set forth at length in Medler v. Henry, 44 N.M. 275, 101 P.2d 398 (1940). Again, in Frederick v. Younger Van Lines, supra, we stated as follows (74 N.M. 325, 393 P.2d 441): As we previously stated in Golden, supra, jurisdiction over the subject matter of divorce rests upon domicile. In the past this court has sometimes used the words "residence" and "domicile" interchangeably for the purpose of divorce jurisdiction, but the test has always been domicile and not residence. In Allen v. Allen, 52 N.M. 174, 178, 194 P.2d 270, 273 (1948), we made the real distinction between the two terms for purposes of divorce jurisdiction as follows: Therefore, using the foregoing rule in testing the evidence supplied by appellee himself, which was the only testimony submitted in support of the Mexican court's jurisdiction, we must hold that the findings of the trial court as to residence, much less domicile, have no support in the evidence. In view of the foregoing, particularly appellee's own uncontradicted testimony, as well as the legal conclusion arrived at by the trial court that the Mexican decree was entitled to full faith and credit, we hold that the trial court was in error and that the Mexican decree in this case is void for lack of jurisdiction. We are not prepared, as appellee would have us do, to depart from the rule announced in Golden, supra, and the public policy as to the requirements for the dissolution of marriages as announced therein. Appellee also urges that appellant has no right to assert the claim she advanced below to invalidate the Mexican divorce decree, contending that estoppel, laches, unclean hands, or inequitable conduct, is a sufficient foundation to validate the judgment below. It is asserted that since she received a deed to the property decreed to her by the Mexican divorce court and later sold it, this does not permit the perfection of her claim. It is to be noted that in the instant case, although appellant was served with a copy of the Mexican divorce complaint, she did not appear at any stage of the proceedings held there. Appellant voluntarily deeded the New Mexico property to her, even though the deed was prepared by appellant's attorney. In the letter forwarding the deed to appellee for signature, her attorney questioned the validity of the Mexican decree. We believe that Golden v. Golden, supra, and Heckathorn v. Heckathorn, supra, answer all of the contentions advanced by appellee in trying to sustain the lower court's judgment. Heckathorn, supra, in citing Golden, supra, with approval, held that estoppel does not validate a void decree *71 and that the doctrine was not applicable because the divorce decree is void. We also said in Heckathorn, supra, that a delay in asserting the invalidity of the decree from March 1963, until November 1965, was not a basis for applying laches, reasoning that there is no time limitation on asserting that a judgment is void. Accordingly, we reverse the judgment of the trial court and remand the case for such proceedings as are consistent with the views expressed herein, to grant the appellee a divorce, determine the community rights of the parties, custody and child support, and including an award of attorney's fees to the appellant for legal services rendered in all of the proceedings, including this appeal. It is so ordered. OMAN and STEPHENSON, JJ., concur.