Source: https://www.legalcrystal.com/case/89888/harding-vs
Timestamp: 2019-04-19 04:51:40+00:00

Document:
Under the circumstances, the wife did not waive her right to assert the estoppel of the judgment by defending on the merits.
The issues involved in the Illinois case and the California case were practically the same, and, under the full faith and credit clause of the Constitution, the California court should have held that the Illinois judgment was an estoppel against the assertion of the husband that the wife's living apart from him was through any fault on her part or amounted to desertion.
As under the Illinois statutes the judgment entered in favor of the wife was necessarily based on a judicial finding that her living apart was not through her fault, the papers filed were to be regarded as consents that the testimony be construed as sustaining the wife's contention, and not as mere consents for entry of judgment.
As a judgment in Illinois entered on consent has the same force as a judgment entered in invitum, and is entitled to similar faith and credit in the courts of another state.
"That married women who, without their fault, now live or hereafter may live separate and apart from their husbands may have their remedy in equity in their own names, respectively, against their said husbands for a reasonable support and maintenance while they so live or have so lived separately and apart, and in determining the amount to be allowed the court shall have reference to the condition of the parties in life, and the circumstances of the respective cases, and the court may grant allowance to enable the wife to prosecute her suit, as in cases of divorce. "
On February 3, 1890, Adelaide M. Harding filed her bill in the Circuit Court of the County of Cook against her husband, George F. Harding.
It was alleged that the parties were residents of the City of Chicago. In substance, in the bill and an amendment, it was charged that, without her fault, and in consequence of the cruel treatment of her husband, and of his adultery, the plaintiff had been obliged to live apart from him. It was prayed that the court decree that she was so living apart without her fault, that it would award her the custody of certain of the children of the marriage, and that the defendant be decreed to provide for the separate maintenance of the complainant and the support of the children. The answer and an amendment thereto admitted the marriage, the birth of the children, and the residence in Chicago, denied the charges of cruelty and other misconduct, and averred that the complainant was living apart solely through her own fault, and that she had refused to return after repeated requests, which were reiterated in the answer.
We shall hereafter, as far as possible, refer to the parties to that litigation, who are the parties to this suit, as the wife and the husband, respectively.
The court, by an interlocutory order, fixed a sum to be paid by the husband for the fees of the solicitors of the wife, for the maintenance of the wife during the pendency of the cause, and for the support of the minor children.
"Hence, I give my consent that a decree for separate maintenance shall be entered in favor of the plaintiff without finding or trial of the issue in this case. That this consent is not collusive is sufficiently shown by the length and character of the litigation. I further offer and stand ready to make such other or further or different stipulation by an amendment of the pleadings or otherwise, as may, in the opinion of your honor, be required to make it unnecessary for the court to hear and decide upon the issues in evidence in this case after a long and expensive hearing. To this end, I declare my willingness to stipulate, and I do hereby stipulate, that the plaintiff at the time of the commencement of this suit, was living and ever since has been living separate and apart from her husband without her fault, and may take a decree with my consent for such sum as may be reasonable and just for her separate maintenance. This is the same offer which I have made by way of an attempt at compromise ever since the commencement of this suit, in which effort at compromise I have not hesitated to offer double the amount that, in my opinion, should be allowed for her separate maintenance by the court."
decree of this Court thereon that she was at the time of the filing of the bill herein, living separate and apart from the defendant without fault on her part, and has been so living ever since."
"upon the decree finding that complainant was living separate and apart from defendant without fault on her part, being now promptly entered such as the said voluntary stipulation of the defendant justifies."
No action appears to have been taken by the court upon these two papers except insofar as may be inferred from the statements which follow.
"and upon other issues herein than the question as to whether complainant, at the time of the commencement of this suit, was, and since that time has been and is, living separate and apart from her husband, the defendant, without her fault, said defendant having admitted upon the record herein, and now admitting in open court, that the complainant was living separate and apart from him without fault on her part."
"doth find that the said complainant, at the time of the commencement of this suit, was living, and ever since that time has lived and is now living separate and apart from her husband, the said defendant, without her fault, and that the equities of this cause are with the complainant."
The decree awarded to the wife sums for her separate maintenance and for the support of the children up to the time of their becoming of age and a further sum for the fees of the solicitors of the wife and other expenses of the litigation. The decree made no reference to the admission contained in the paper filed by the husband, nor was any statement made which limited the effect of the decree as a final adjudication of the rights of the parties. An exception on behalf of the husband was taken to each and every finding of the decree, and sixty days were allowed to prepare a certificate of evidence.
husband insisting, to the contrary, that the charges had not been proven, and further asserting that it was not necessary to so find, because of his admission of record. The court said that it did not pass upon the question as to whether all the charges made in the complaint were true, because it regarded it as unnecessary "in view of the said paper of the defendant, filed herein January 3, 1893."
The husband prosecuted an appeal to the appellate court of Illinois for the first district. But before this appeal was perfected, and on August 31, 1897, he commenced in the Superior Court of San Diego, California, this suit against his wife for divorce. The marriage in 1855 and the residence in Chicago were alleged, but it was averred that, ever since May 15, 1895, the plaintiff had been a resident of the State of California. The sole ground alleged for granting the divorce was willful desertion by the wife in the month of February, 1890. The answer of the wife denied that the husband was a resident of California, and in a separate paragraph there was specially pleaded the proceedings and the decree of the Illinois court and the admission of the husband on the record therein as to the separation being without the fault of the wife, all of which, it was asserted, established by the thing adjudged that her living apart was justified and did not constitute desertion.
In the meanwhile, before the trial of the cause, the appeal prosecuted in the Illinois case by the husband was decided against him in the appellate court, and he took an appeal to the Supreme Court of Illinois, in which court the judgment was affirmed, with a modification as to the amount of the allowance for alimony, and the trial court changed the amount of its decree accordingly. The wife then, by an amended answer, again set up the decree in Illinois, as amended, as res judicata.
of the appeal from the final decree in Illinois as originally entered. The court made findings of fact to the effect that the parties had been married in Illinois, that the husband was a bona fide resident of California, and that, on the first day of February, 1890, the wife had deserted her husband without just cause. As a conclusion of law, it was deduced that the husband was entitled to a divorce, but that the court was without power in any way to limit or affect the decree for separate maintenance rendered by the Illinois court. After the refusal of a new trial, the wife appealed to the Supreme Court of California, and that court affirmed the decree. 140 Cal. 690.
The question is, did the Supreme Court of California fail to give due faith and credit to the decree for separate maintenance rendered in favor of the wife in Illinois, which was pleaded by the wife as res judicata ?
It is suggested in argument that that question cannot be passed upon, as the wife, besides pleading and relying upon the Illinois decree, defended on the merits, and by so doing waived the benefits of the alleged estoppel arising from the Illinois decree. The want of merit in the contention is at once demonstrated by the statement that the Supreme Court of the State of California, in its opinion in the cause, treated the question of estoppel by the Illinois judgment as being open, and actually determined it.
based thereon was erroneous, even if the correctness of the premise be conceded for the sake of the argument.
The conclusion of the Supreme Court of California that the Illinois decree was solely based on the consent of the parties, and was consequently not the result of the action of the court, was based on the following: 1. The paper filed by the husband on January 3, 1893. 2. The recital in the amended order of reference that the admission that the wife was without fault had been made for the purpose of the trial only. 3. The statement of the trial judge, made in the certificate of evidence, that, in view of the admission on the record, he had not found it necessary to pass upon all the charges made in the complaint.
restricted the right to cases where the living separate and apart from the husband was without her fault. The 'fault' here meant and contemplated is a voluntary consenting to the separation, or such failure of duty or misconduct on her part as 'materially contributes to a disruption of the marital relation.' If she leave the husband voluntarily, or by consent, or if her misconduct has materially induced the course of action on the part of the husband upon which she relies as justifying the separation, it is not without her fault within the meaning of the law. No encouragement can be given to the living apart of husband and wife. The law and good of society alike forbid it. But a wife who is not herself in fault is not bound to live and cohabit with her husband if his conduct is such as to directly endanger her life, person, or health, nor where the husband pursues a persistent, unjustifiable, and wrongful course of conduct towards her which will necessarily and inevitably render her life miserable and living as his wife unendurable. Incompatibility of disposition, occasional ebullitions of passion, trivial difficulties, or slight moral obliquities will not justify separation. If the husband voluntarily does that which compels the wife to leave him or justifies her in so doing, the inference may be justly drawn that he intended to produce that result, on the familiar principle that sane men usually mean to produce those results which naturally and legitimately flow from their actions. And, if he so intended, her leaving him would, in the case put, be desertion on his part, and not by the wife."
In the second place, even if the rule of public policy enunciated by the Supreme Court of Illinois be put out of view, the assumption that the Illinois decree was a consent decree, merely registering an agreement of the parties, disregards the form of that decree, and cannot be indulged in without out failing to give effect to the very face of the decree, which adjudged that the separation of the wife from the husband was without her fault. This was an express finding by the court, and one which the law required to be judicially made.
paper filed by the husband sought to avoid, and the conduct of the husband, in excepting to the finding as made by the court demonstrates that he regarded it as a judicial determination of the issue of absence of fault on the part of the wife. And the modified order of reference gives rise but to the inference that, in view of the admission of the husband, it was not deemed necessary, for the purpose of the trial, to take further testimony in respect to the conceded fact, or for the master to report in detail concerning the evidence as to the misconduct of the husband which led to the separation. This also explains the statement of the judge, made in the certificate of evidence, as to the controversy regarding the terms of the decree, and his refusal to find that all the charges made in the bill had been proven. This view of the matters relied upon by the California court was one expressly adopted by both the appellate court and by the Supreme Court of Illinois in deciding the appeal taken by the husband. On that appeal, as we have said, he complained of the action of the court, including the finding that the wife was living separate without fault on her part. 79 Ill.App. 590, 180 Ill. 481.
Both of the Illinois courts, in considering the objection that the trial court was without power to make a finding concerning the absence of fault on the part of the wife because of the consent manifested by the paper filed by the husband, treated that paper not as a mere consent to a decree in relation to that subject, but as an admission concerning the state of the proof in the record, which, whilst it rendered it unnecessary for the court to analyze the proof, did not deprive it of the power to make a judicial finding of the fact. It is to be observed also that both courts held that, on the issue as to the custody of the minor children and the sum to be allowed for separate maintenance, the inquiry into the conduct of the husband was relevant, and required an analysis of the testimony -- an analysis which embraced necessarily those elements of proof which entered into the question of the causes of the separation.
review was a consent decree, we are of opinion that the cases relied upon by the Supreme Court of California, Wadhams v. Gay, 73 Ill. 417; Farwell v. Great Western Tel. Co., 161 Ill. 522, are not authoritative upon the proposition that such decree would not, in the courts of Illinois, have the effect of res judicata. The first of the cases -- considered by this Court in Gay v. Parpart, 106 U. S. 689 -- dealt merely with the right of a court of equity to refuse to lend its aid to enforce an incomplete and ineffective decree in partition proceedings, because to do so would be inequitable. In the second of the cases, it was but decided that a fraudulent decree might be set aside in a court of equity.
error, or by bill of review for error. Armstrong v. Cooper, 11 Ill. 540."
And the assertion that the particular matters relied upon in this cause are of such a character as to take this case out of the rule just stated is conclusively shown to be without merit by the decision of the appellate court and the Supreme Court of Illinois affirming the decree of separation and the finding therein made.
parties was without fault on the part of the wife, since the verdict might have proceeded upon either of the following grounds: 1, that the abandonment was for less than two years; 2, that it was by mutual consent; or, 3, that it was induced by the acts of the husband, whatever might have been the fault of the wife.
"No principle is better settled than that, where a question proper for judicial determination is directly put in issue and finally determined in a legal proceeding by a court having competent authority and jurisdiction to hear and determine the same, such decision and determination of the question will be deemed final and conclusive upon the parties and their privies in all future litigation between them in which the same question arises, so long as the judgment remains unreversed or is not otherwise set aside."
But the court held that these elementary principles did not apply, because the decree against the wife in the separate maintenance suit was general, and might have been entered solely upon the ground that the wife was not without fault, leaving undecided the question whether the husband was in any way at fault, and therefore there was not identity, and resulting res judicata.
obvious when it is recalled that in this case there was a decree not against, but in favor of, the wife in the maintenance suit, which decree necessarily conclusively settled that the separation was for cause and was without fault on the part of the wife, and therefore was not a willful desertion of the husband by the wife, which is the precise issue in the divorce case now here.
In the brief of counsel, it is stated that, under the law of California, if a wife is living apart from her husband under circumstances which do not constitute desertion, yet such living apart may become desertion if the husband in good faith invites the wife to return, and she does not do so. In this connection, reference is made to certain requests proffered by the husband for the wife to return, which, it is urged, caused the separation to become desertion under the California law. But, conceding, without deciding, that the California law is as asserted, the proposition of fact upon which the argument rests amounts simply to denying all effect to the Illinois decree. This follows because all the requests to return referred to were made in Illinois before the entry of the final decree in the suit for separate maintenance, were referred to in the answer in that case, and were adversely concluded by the judgment which was rendered. Johnson v. Johnson, 125 Ill. 510.
was stated by the husband in his answer to the bill to have been an abandonment and desertion of him. The willful desertion charged in the complaint in this action for divorce was averred to have been committed "on or about the month of February, 1890, and to have been continuous thereafter." And the identity between the two is further demonstrated by the circumstance that the evidence taken in the Illinois case bearing upon the cause for the separation was used upon the trial in this case. The question in each suit, therefore, was whether the one separation and living apart was by reason of the fault of the wife. From the standpoint of a decree in favor of the wife in the suit for separate maintenance, the issues raised and determined were absolutely identical.
asked for the divorce on account of his wife having willfully abandoned him."
"The fact determined by it is inconsistent with the necessary allegation in the libel that the libelee previously had utterly deserted the libellant, and was then continuing such desertion. Utter desertion, which is recognized by the statute as a cause for divorce, is a marital wrong. Because the deserter is a wrongdoer, the law gives the deserted party a right to a divorce. If a wife leaves her husband for a justifiable cause, it is not utter desertion within the meaning of the statute, and a wife who has utterly deserted her husband, and is living apart from him in continuance of such desertion, cannot be found to be so living for justifiable cause. Pidge v. Pidge, 3 Metc. 257, 261; Fera v. Fera, 98 Mass. 155; Lyster v. Lyster, 111 Mass. 327. The court should have ruled as requested by the libelee, that the decree of the probate court was a bar to the maintenance of this libel. Exceptions sustained."
this action for divorce was identical with that decided in the suit in Illinois for separate maintenance. This being the case, it follows that the Supreme Court of California, in affirming the judgment of divorce, failed to give to the decree of the Illinois court the due faith and credit to which it was entitled, and thereby violated the Constitution of the United States.
The judgment of the Supreme Court of California must therefore be reversed, and the cause be remanded for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion.
MR. JUSTICE BROWN concurs in the result.

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