Opinion ID: 1478977
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: denial of the stay.

Text: Plaintiff and defendant, both Dutch nationals, were married in New York on July 24, 1947. Thereafter they were in and out of this country on visitors' visas until November 7, 1952, the date which is critical to this cause. In September 1952 Gosschalk was living in Weehawken, New Jersey. His wife, who had previously returned to Holland, joined him there pursuant to an understanding that they would go to Canada and endeavor to obtain admission to the United States as immigrants. That course was pursued but proved fruitless, and they came back to Weehawken, still bearers of visitors' visas only. On November 7, 1952 Mrs. Gosschalk again left for Holland. She claims that the departure was precipitated by his misconduct; he asserts that she deserted him. On December 24, 1952, a little more than a month after reaching their home in Amsterdam, she sued for divorce on the ground of adultery and in the alternative for a separation from table and board. As an incident, his property was attached and shortly thereafter she was granted maintenance pendente lite of approximately $200 per month in American dollars, which she is still receiving. Gosschalk entered a personal appearance in the action on May 7, 1953, and four months later applied for leave to file a counterclaim seeking a divorce on account of her alleged adultery, and in the alternative for a separation from table and board. Permission was granted on December 16, 1953, but he delayed taking advantage of it until March 24, 1955, 15 months later. His wife answered the counterclaim on October 27, 1955, saying among other things: Petitioner further denies, with indignation, that she should ever have been guilty of any adultery (or of any indecent conduct of life; respondent avoids  and with good reason  mentioning any further specification). She states emphatically that her conduct of life has always been irreproachable; even now she does not receive men at home neither does she deal with or go out with other men, so that respondent's allegations are incomprehensible. On October 16, 1953 the federal immigration authorities granted Gosschalk the immigration visa which authorized permanent residence here. As has been indicated, 13 months later he instituted this proceeding against his wife for divorce on the ground of desertion, alleging November 7, 1952 as the date of separation. Substituted service was employed. The complaint specifically referred to the suit pending in Holland and to the order for temporary alimony therein. In addition to the divorce judgment, a declaration was sought adjudging the maintenance order to be void in this State, as well as a restraint against the further prosecution of the foreign litigation. The complaint alleged also that Mrs. Gosschalk's foreign action was predicated upon a false assertion of domicile. In this connection, note may be taken of the fact that four months later Gosschalk filed his counterclaim in her suit in which he made no reference to the action here nor to the allegation therein that his wife's claim of Holland domicile was false. He sought no stay of her proceeding there and he did not pursue either pendente lite or at final hearing his prayer for restraint set out in the complaint in New Jersey. Hearing of the domestic cause for divorce was listed for April 5, 1956. On that day, the wife's counsel moved for a stay pending the outcome of the earlier Holland controversy. After hearing some discussion about alleged procrastination in the prosecution thereof, but without making any specific finding that the wife had been guilty of undue delay, the court denied the motion, saying that it was addressed to his discretion and that: It seems to me that the court following its general practice is solicitous of its own calendar and is mindful that litigation should be expeditiously handled with due respect to the other rights of the respective parties. I will deny the application to stay. The plaintiff may proceed. In my judgment, that ruling was a mistaken exercise of discretion. Comity between nations and states is one of the few courtly doctrines of the law. It is not an imperative matter; it does not signify absolute obligation. In the ordinary intercourse between the courts of nations at peace and between those of sister states, it springs from an abiding sense of courtesy between equals. It represents no impeachment of sovereignty, but only reciprocal regard for the authority and integrity of tribunals with concurrent jurisdiction to act in a given matter. It is a principle of persuasion based on practical convenience, expediency and good will. Concededly, its recognition in a given case is discretionary and not mandatory. However, after years of experience in dealing with comity, the courts have given it a content by which the exercise of discretion in certain matters is to be guided. That content, forcefully pertinent here, teaches that one court should defer action on causes even though properly within its jurisdiction until courts of another sovereignty already cognizant of the litigation have had an opportunity to adjudicate the controversy. Darr v. Burford, 339 U.S. 200, 204, 70 S.Ct. 587, 94 L.Ed. 761 (1950). In our own State the rule in action is said to mean that: Considerations of comity forbid interference with the prosecution of a proceeding in a foreign jurisdiction capable of affording adequate relief and doing complete justice, unless there be a special equity sufficient in conscience to stay the hand of the defendant. The question is not the existence of the power but the propriety of its exercise in the given case. The rule of comity is grounded in the policy of avoiding conflicts of jurisdiction, unless upon strong grounds, and the general principle that the court which first acquires jurisdiction of the issue has precedence. O'Loughlin v. O'Loughlin, 6 N.J. 170, 179 (1951). I see no reason in conscience and equity why the earlier acquisition of adjudicatory power over the matrimonial controversy should not be bowed to by our courts. These parties are Holland nationals. Both of them submitted their dispute voluntarily to a proper tribunal of their own sovereignty. That tribunal made an order for payment of maintenance pandente lite and the husband has been conforming to the direction of the order for more than five years. There is not the slightest indication that justice will not or cannot be done in Holland. And in my view it is unseemly for our court to ignore the forum first selected by the wife and accepted by the husband. Adherence to the general practice of being solicitous of its own calendar is not a sufficient special equity. The contention advanced that the wife's delay in moving her suit in Holland warranted the trial court's ruling is insubstantial. Our own case took from November 23, 1954 to February 11, 1957 (complaint to judgment nisi ). On the record presented to us, the term delay can be given no invidious implications. It can mean only the passage of time because there is not the slightest proof that the foreign action did not proceed under the circumstances of the case in accordance with the local and accepted practice, or that it did not reach the trial list there in the ordinary course. Any delay which would justify the visitation of unfavorable consequences upon the wife must be judged not by the mere lapse of time, nor by the standards of our own system, but on the basis of criteria which would be applied by the courts of the Netherlands. And in this connection it cannot escape attention that since 1953 the husband has been represented by counsel in Holland, and that he has been paying his wife $200 monthly all that time. If his wife had been guilty of improper delay gauged by local standards, would not a motion have been made to dismiss or to proceed? In any event, on the score of relative delay in prosecuting claim and counterclaim, is there much to choose between them? Certainly not enough to warrant our disregard of the applicable international amenity. Particularly is this so when the certificate of the High Court of Justice dated March 23, 1955, recites, among other things: At the sitting of this Court, 6th Division, of March 24, next, this case will again  for the 19th time  be called out for filing of a statement of defense by the respondent. Consequently, the aforesaid action Gosschalk v. Gosschalk    is still pending before this Court. (Emphasis added) The absence of contest or complaint on either side with respect to the periods of time intervening between the various pleadings and in awaiting the appearance of the matter on the trial calendar, furnishes no clear indication of lack of diligence on the part of the wife. And it must be remembered that the burden of showing strong grounds justifying disregard of comity rests on the person resisting the plea for a stay. Moreover, from the standpoint of comity, the special equities favor our abstention from the controversy. The record indicates that the husband thinks little of traveling back and forth across the ocean. He has business interests in Amsterdam and apparently in other parts of the world. As a national of Holland, undoubtedly he felt at home in its courts or he would not have filed his counterclaim there. He has never sought dismissal of his wife's suit or of the order for maintenance nor did he ever seek a stay. In fact, we were advised by the parties at oral argument that her case was partly heard while this trial was in progress, and that only recently they took some depositions in the United States in connection therewith. Of course, this fact was not before our trial court when the motion for stay was made. But wholly apart from any consideration of events subsequent to that motion, equity clearly pointed to the same denial of relief here as was ordered in Stultz v. Stultz, 15 N.J. 315 (1954). There, the husband and wife were married and lived in New Jersey for many years. After a long period of separation, the husband went to Florida and acquired a bona fide domicile there. Then he sued her for divorce in Florida and she retained counsel and entered a general appearance to contest the action. Later, while he was visiting temporarily in New Jersey, she instituted suit for separate maintenance and to restrain him from pursuing his action in Florida. An injunction issued but it was set aside by this court, with the declaration that: Where there is a voluntary submission to the foreign jurisdiction there is no ground for intervention by the New Jersey courts, or rather there is no ground unless there be a special equity justifying such relief notwithstanding the appearance. (At page 319) And see: Fantony v. Fantony, 21 N.J. 525, 533 (1956); Prudential Ins. Co. of America v. Merritt-Chapman & Scott Corp., 112 N.J. Eq. 179 ( Ch. 1933); Bigelow v. Old Dominion Copper, etc., Co., 74 N.J. Eq. 457 ( Ch. 1908); Barber v. Barber, 324 P. 2 d 746 ( Cal. D. Ct. App. 1958). For these reasons, even if jurisdiction over the subject matter of the controversy did exist, I would reverse the denial of the stay and direct that this action be held in abeyance until our judicial confreres in Holland have a reasonable time within which to render judgment. There is no sound reason why we should impose upon the courts of a friendly nation the difficult task of deciding whether to honor or to ignore an intervening judgment of our court or to vacate or sustain their pendente lite support order or to grant or deny a final support order. Cf. Vanderbilt v. Vanderbilt, 354 U.S. 416, 77 S.Ct. 1360, 1 L.Ed. 2 d 1456 (1957); Estin v. Estin, 334 U.S. 541, 68 S.Ct. 1213, 92 L.Ed. 1561 (1948).