Court Opinion

ID: 9636636
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 14:36:11.418708+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:09:47.587901
License: Public Domain

EDGERTON, Associate Justice,
(dissenting).
Whether or not the present parties misrepresented facts to the Mexican court, I think that here as in the Curry case the “condition of which the plaintiff complains was brought about by” the plaintiff’s “collusion, connivance, and active cooperation”. 65 App.D.C. 47, 49, 79 F.2d 172.
It has been held that a husband or wife who assists in obtaining a foreign divorce which is invalid connives at his spouse’s subsequent adultery in marrying and living with another, and cannot use that adultery as a ground for divorce. Langewald v. Langewald, 234 Mass. 269, 125 N.E. 566, 39 A.L.R. 674; Lankester v. Lankester, L. R. [1925] P. 114; Palmer v. Palmer, 1 Sw. & Tr. 551; cf. Curry v. Curry, supra, Contra, Shannon v. Shannon, 247 App.Div. *275790, 286 N.Y.S. 27 (two judges dissenting). In similar circumstances, it has been held that the plaintiff is estopped from claiming a declaratory judgment that the marriage which she undertook to end is still in effect. Schneider v. Schneider, 232 App.Div. 71, 249 N.Y.S. 131. Cf. Starbuck v. Starbuck, 173 N.Y. 503, 66 N.E. 193, 93 Am.St.Rep. 631. Similarly a husband who divorces his wife by a Jewish “get”, which is not a legal divorce, connives at her adultery in marrying another. Shilman v. Shilman, 105 Misc. 461, 174 N. Y.S. 385, affirmed 188 App.Div. 908, 175 N.Y.S. 681, affirmed, 230 N.Y. 554, 130 N. E. 890. No Mexican decree can be more void than a “get”; and no party to a Mexican decree can be more innocent of misrepresenting facts to a court than the parties to a “get,” who do not go near a court.
Although the wife in the present case did not remarry, I think the husband cannot fairly assert against her the invalidity of the Mexican decree. As far as appears, the wife’s faith in the Mexican decree may have persisted as long as the asserted relationship with the co-respondent. That being so, I think the husband is es-topped to complain of the relationship. One who cooperates in procuring his own divorce, valid or invalid, plainly represents that his wife is freed from all marital obligations to him and that he will not in the future demand marital conduct from her. Defendant’s non-marital conduct occurred after, and for all we know in reliance on, plaintiff’s representation. Until she learned that the representation was untrue, it may have influenced her. We cannot assume that it was all one to the defendant whether she was a married woman, committing the crime of adultery and giving cause for divorce, or an unmarried woman committing only fornication and creating no cause of action. As plaintiff, by cooperating in the Mexican divorce, may have helped to cause the acts of which he complains, and certainly represented that he would not complain of them, he complains with bad grace and in my judgment is estopped.
I think the defense may also be put, as it was in the remarriage cases cited above, on the closely related ground of connivance. It is said that consent is necessary to connivance. Bateman v. Bateman, 42 App.D.C. 230. But when a husband’s conduct plainly indicates to his wife that he will not object to sexual relations• between her and third persons, he is regularly held to connive at those relations. In connection with connivance as in most other situations, it is apparent or objective consent with which the law is concerned.
The case has another aspect. I think the statute permitting divorce for adultery should be interpreted as contemplating conscious adultery. Unconscious adultery offers far less affront to the feelings of the husband and the standards of society. As the defendant believed herself an unmarried woman, she was no more a conscious adulteress than if she had been asleep or drugged.
I think the decree appealed from should be affirmed.