Opinion ID: 1317841
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Full Faith and Credit The Judgment Nisi

Text: We may wonder if the limitation of the full faith and credit clause to final judgments as set forth in Barber continues to be the law. Mr. Justice Jackson's statement in concurrence therein, that [n]either the full faith and credit clause of the Constitution nor the Act of Congress implementing it says anything about final judgments or, for that matter about any judgments.   , 323 U.S. at 87, 65 S.Ct. at 141, has received considerable citation and approval. It has also been said that although a state may not be constitutionally bound to enforce a sister state's modifiable judgment, neither is it bound not to enforce it. Worthley v. Worthley, 44 Cal.2d 465, 283 P.2d 19, 22 (1955). We find nothing in our Uniform Foreign Judgments Act that distinguishes between a judgment for alimony and support to be paid in continuing monthly payments and a judgment for money only, payable in a definite and fixed sum. Under our statute, then, if not under the full faith and credit clause, it must be considered that the judgment nisi, when filed with the district court, [14] justified any action that could be taken by a judgment plaintiff in a case originating in the state of Wyoming. Contempt and other methods of enforcing a divorce decree containing alimony and support provisions would then be available to the plaintiff, and although the plaintiff in this case did not in the first instance seek such relief, we believe that her subsequent efforts in that respect were procedurally proper, albeit unsuccessful. Plaintiff cites no authority in support of her contention that New Jersey law would not permit the modifications made by the district court and we cannot agree therewith insofar as the judgment nisi is concerned. While we have found no recent decisions of the final appellate court of New Jersey dealing specifically with the subject, we believe that both by statute and judicial decision the judgment nisi was modifiable. N.J.S.A. § 2A:34-23 provides that a divorce decree providing for alimony and child support may be revised and altered by the court from time to time as circumstances may require. In Duffy v. Duffy, 19 N.J. Misc. 332, 19 A.2d 236, 239, (C.C. 1941), Herr, Advisory Master, relying in part upon construction of the New Jersey statute by the Supreme Court of the United States in Lynde v. Lynde, 181 U.S. 183, 21 S.Ct. 555, 45 L.Ed. 810 (1901), said: The decision of the Supreme Court in the Lynde case is direct authority to the effect that under our statute as it was in the year 1900 (and it has not since been changed on that point) this court has authority to modify or vacate its alimony and maintenance decrees as to overdue and unpaid installments.    The latest decision of the Supreme Court of New Jersey pertinent to the general issue of enforcement of divorce decrees which we have been able to find, Joseph Harris & Sons v. Van Loan, supra, outlining the New Jersey practice to liquidate and finalize the amount due from a defendant for alimony or support, is consistent with this construction. In Whitehead v. Villapiano, 16 N.J. Super. 415, 84 A.2d 731, 735 (1951), involving a Pennsylvania decree, the Appellate Division of the Superior Court indicated its construction of the New Jersey law to be that the alimony judgment may be modified. This is the construction of the writer of a note in 11 Rutgers Law Review (1956-57), p. 726, Enforcement of Alimony Judgments in New Jersey, and also of the Supreme Court of California. [15]