Court Opinion

ID: 9536379
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 06:58:43.716863+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T14:54:23.659635
License: Public Domain

BRICE, Chief Justice, (dissenting). I concur in the dissenting opinion of Mr. Justice McGHEE. The opinion of the court and the supporting cases cited by Mr. Justice Sadler can have no application to the wife in any suit or action where community property is involved. The wife has a vested interest in the community property, McDonald v. Senn, 53 N.M. 198, 204 P.2d 990, 10 A.L.R. 2d 966, and for constitutional reasons she cannot be deprived of her vested property rights without due process of law. To constitute due process she must be a party to any suit that involves those vested rights; otherwise no judgment or decree will bind her or her interest in such property. That she and her interest in community property are bound by a- judgment or decree of the district court against the husband alone was held by this court in Levy v. Kalabich, 35 N.M. 282, 295 P. 296. If she is not a party to this action through representation by her husband, then the judgment or decree is void as to her rights. She is necessarily a party to the suit and her testimony is not corroboration in the statutory sense.