Case Title: In Re Marriage of Wilson

Citation: 245 Kan. 178, 777 P.2d 773

Docket Number: 62,028

State: kansas

Court: Kansas Supreme Court

Date: 1989-07-14T00:00:00Z

Document:
245 Kan. 178 (1989)
777 P.2d 773
In the Matter of the Marriage of ANITA S. WILSON, Appellee, and CHARLES L. WILSON, through Joyce Simpson, Administrator of the Estate of Charles L. Wilson, Appellant.
No. 62,028

Supreme Court of Kansas.
Opinion filed July 14, 1989.
Craig W. Campbell, of Joseph, Robison & Anderson, P.A., of Wichita, argued the cause, and Charles E. Millsap, of the same firm, was with him on the brief for appellant.
W.J. Fitzpatrick, of Fitzpatrick & Bass, of Independence, argued the cause and was on the brief for appellee.
The opinion of the court was delivered by
McFARLAND, J.:
In this divorce action the issue is the matrimonial status of the parties where one party dies between the time the trial court orally grants the divorce and the filing of the journal entry. The district court set aside the journal entry and held the parties were married at the time of the death of Charles L. Wilson. The administrator of Charles' estate appealed from said judgment and the same was affirmed by the Court of Appeals (13 Kan. App.2d 291, 768 P.2d 835 [1989]). The matter is before us on petition for review.
The facts are not in dispute and may be summarized as follows. Charles and Anita Wilson were married on November 1, 1969. Two children were born to the marriage. On June 25, 1987, Anita filed this divorce action. Charles filed a counterclaim seeking a divorce. Both parties were represented by counsel. Trial was set for November 5, 1987. On the day of trial, the parties verbally *179 reached agreement on child support, visitation, property division, and maintenance. At the conclusion of the trial, the court orally granted a divorce to each party and accepted the parties' stipulation as to their agreement on the balance of the issues. Anita's counsel was directed to prepare the journal entry. At approximately 9:00 a.m. on December 4, 1987, the journal entry, properly signed by counsel for the respective parties, was presented to the trial judge for signature. The judge signed the same and it was immediately filed with the clerk. It was later learned that Charles had died at 12:16 a.m. on December 4, 1987  prior to the court's approval of and the filing of the journal entry.
Anita moved to set aside the journal entry based upon the death of Charles. The motion was granted with the trial court holding that Charles' death had terminated the marriage. Anita was, accordingly, held to be the widow of Charles rather than his ex-wife.
Resolution of the issue involves interpretation of K.S.A. 60-258, which provides:
The appellant administrator argues that the securing of the trial judge's approval of and the filing of the journal entry were ministerial acts and that, for all practical purposes, the parties were divorced on November 5, 1987, when the trial court verbally *180 announced its decision. In support of her position, appellant administrator cites cases applying the prior statute, K.S.A. 60-258(b) (Corrick), which provided:
K.S.A. 60-258 was amended in 1976 to its current provisions.
Under the prior law, the judge's minutes entered on the appearance docket by the clerk could be an effective judgment. In the case of In re Estate of Penn, 216 Kan. 153, 531 P.2d 133 (1975), the trial judge made minutes on his trial docket of the granting of the divorce but neither directed the clerk to enter same on the appearance docket nor requested a journal entry. We held:
The 1976 amendment unequivocally states that no judgment is effective until a journal entry or the judgment form is signed and filed. A journal entry was requested by the trial court herein. The decision of the trial court could not become effective prior to its filing by the express language of K.S.A. 60-258. If the decision of the trial court granting the divorce could not become effective prior to the filing of the journal entry, then it was ineffective prior to that time. Charles died prior to the trial court's approval of, and the filing of, the journal entry. At the time of his death, Charles was lawfully married to Anita. His death terminated that marriage. Accordingly, there was no marriage for the decree of divorce to terminate at the time the journal entry reflecting the judicial termination was filed. Anita was Charles' widow at the time the journal entry was signed and filed. We must conclude that the majority opinion of the Court of Appeals correctly *181 affirmed the trial court's setting aside of the journal entry granting a decree of divorce.
This determination is consistent with the result we reached in State v. Dubish, 234 Kan. 708, 675 P.2d 877 (1984). In a divorce proceeding, the trial court orally granted a divorce to Mildred Dubish on September 17, 1982. The journal entry reflecting said decision was filed on October 15, 1982. On October 4, 1982, an incident occurred which resulted in Andrew Dubish being charged, inter alia, with the aggravated sodomy of Mildred. The crime of aggravated sodomy, as statutorily defined at the time in question, required as an element that the defendant and the victim not be married. We overturned the conviction on the basis that defendant and the victim were married until the journal entry was signed and filed  hence they were husband and wife when the incident occurred. In Dubish, we discussed the significant change resulting from the 1976 amendment to K.S.A. 60-258 and distinguished the result reached in In re Estate of Penn, 216 Kan. 153, previously discussed herein. We concluded:
As noted by the majority opinion of the Court of Appeals, the result herein may appear harsh. However, the applicable express statutory language is clear and unambiguous.
The appellant administrator's alternative argument was adequately disposed of by the majority opinion of the Court of Appeals as follows:
The judgments of the Court of Appeals and the district court are affirmed.