Source: http://masscases.com/cases/sjc/332/332mass414.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-19 01:00:26+00:00

Document:
ETHEL B. (HYDER) TIERNEY vs. J. PAUL TIERNEY.
Tierney was divorced from his first wife, Mary Ellen Tierney, in Massachusetts, on her libel, by a decree which became absolute on April 9, 1938. By G. L. (Ter. Ed.) c. 208, Section 24, Tierney was forbidden to marry another within two years after that date. He did marry one Mary Agatha Tierney in Maine on April 9, 1939. The judge found that at the end of the period during which he was forbidden to marry another, namely on April 9, 1940, and afterwards, Tierney and Mary Agatha Tierney were living together as husband and wife in Massachusetts "in good faith." Under G. L. (Ter. Ed.) c. 207, Section 6, their marriage became valid on April 10, 1940. Commonwealth v. Josselyn, 186 Mass. 186. Vital v. Vital, 319 Mass. 185. Royal v. Royal, 324 Mass. 613, 615-616. The findings of the judge show that the marriage of Tierney with Mary Agatha Tierney, was valid.
The judge found that on October 31, 1944, Tierney, "then of Lewiston in the County of Androscoggin in the State of Maine" (a finding which we deem one that he was domiciled there), filed a libel for divorce in the Superior Court for that county against Mary Agatha Tierney of Whitman, Massachusetts. Personal service was made upon her in Massachusetts by a deputy sheriff. She appeared generally in the Maine court by her attorneys. The Maine court granted Tierney a divorce on January 20, 1945, for the cause of desertion for three years, a ground for divorce under the Maine statute.
The fact that Tierney had his domicil in Maine when he filed his libel for divorce gave jurisdiction to the Maine court. Williams v. North Carolina, 317 U.S. 287. Williams v. North Carolina, 325 U.S. 226. Royal v. Royal, 324 Mass. 613, 617. Fitzgerald v. Starratt, 330 Mass. 75, 78. Barnard v. Barnard, 331 Mass. 455. The statute of Maine (Rev. St. 1944, c. 153, Section 55), gave jurisdiction to the Superior Court for Androscoggin County, where Tierney lived and where he brought his libel for divorce. The decree of divorce raises a presumption that that court had jurisdiction to grant it. Cook v. Cook, 342 U.S. 126. We see no ground for denying its validity. But if there were any such ground, the fact that the libellee Mary Agatha Tierney appeared in the Maine court would make the divorce valid. Aufiero v. Aufiero, ante, 149, 152. Sherrer v. Sherrer, 334 U.S. 343. Coe v. Coe, 334 U.S. 378. Compare Staedler v. Staedler, 6 N. J. 380.
was said in Reilly v. Selectmen of Blackstone, 266 Mass. 503, 507, the so called motion to dismiss may be treated as a "double and defective plea presented and tried without objection." See also Moran v. Manning, 306 Mass. 404, 407-408. The decree dismissing the libel for nullity was right on the facts found, even though it was erroneously stated as having been entered on a motion to dismiss. Frost v. Kendall, 320 Mass. 623, 626.

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