Court Opinion

ID: 9579958
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:00:22.985454+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:35:55.495439
License: Public Domain

Ingram, Justice,
concurring specially.
I applaud this court’s recognition of the constitutional dangers created by some of the language in McCoy, supra, at p. 634, and then magnified by the holding in Manning, supra.
Cases which have considered and upheld the *679constitutionality of no-fault divorce statutes in other states have specifically noted that under those statutes there must be a judicial determination that the marriage is truly at an end. See Hopkins v. Hopkins, 540 SW2d 783 (Tex. CCA, 1976); Flora v. Flora, 337 NE2d 846 (Ind. CA 1976); Ryan v. Ryan, 277 S2d 266 (Fla. SC, 1973).
We had reached the point in Georgia where, if one of the parties to a marriage sued for divorce on the ground that the marriage was irretrievably broken, the court performed nothing more than a ministerial duty in approving the divorce complaint. Both parties’ status in society had been fundamentally altered from that of "married” to "divorced” without giving one of those parties any real opportunity to be heard. Whatever the parameters of due process may be, it is my opinion that this procedure did not comport with constitutional safeguards. "The right to be heard in matters affecting one’s life, liberty or property is one of the essential elements of due process of law.” Southern R. Co. v. Town of Temple, 209 Ga. 722, 724 (75 SE2d 554) (1953). In Boddie v. Connecticut, 401 U. S. 371 (91 SC 780, 28 LE2d 113) (1971), the U. S. Supreme Court held that due process of law prohibits a state from denying indigents access to its divorce courts solely because of their inability to pay court costs and fees. The court reasoned that since marriage is of such basic importance in our society and since the state has a monopoly over the means for dissolving that relationship, due process of law requires that any citizen seeking a divorce be given an opportunity to go into court and be heard. The rationale of Boddie requires that in any judicial proceeding involving the termination of a marriage due process means that both parties to the marriage must be given a meaningful opportunity to come into court and be heard.
These constitutional problems were foreseen a long time ago by a judge whose opinions have been considered the birthright and strength of our judicial system, Chief Justice John Marshall of the U. S. Supreme Court. In Trustees of Dartmouth College v. Woodward, 17 U. S. Reports 518, 629 (1819), Justice Marshall had this to say about the constitutional provision that proscribes the impairment of contract obligations: "[It] never has been *680understood to embrace other contracts, than those which respect property, or some object of value, and confer rights which may be asserted in a court of justice. It never has been understood to restrict the general right of the legislature to legislate on the subject of divorces. Those acts enable some tribunal, not to impair a marriage contract, but to liberate one of the parties because it has been broken by the other. When any state legislature shall pass an Act annulling all marriage contracts, or allowing either party to annul it without the consent of the other, it will be time enough to inquire, whether such an Act be constitutional.” (Emphasis supplied.)
That time had come in Georgia after McCoy and Manning. McCoy can be saved because of the facts of that case, but Manning is wrong. There was an issue in Manning and that issue should have been resolved by the factfinder. I think the court has reached a wise and just decision in determining not to follow Manning in future cases.