Court Opinion

ID: 9718085
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 07:16:44.067729+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:57.265158
License: Public Domain

Kokjer, District Judge,
dissenting.
It is true, as held in the majority opinion, that a state has judicial jurisdiction over an individual who is domiciled in the state. It does not follow that a domicile existing in 1950 is a sound basis for holding, without more, that such domicile continued to exist in 1964.
Plaintiff seeks to have a Minnesota judgment registered in Nebraska. The Minnesota judgment was based on service by publication. The initial essential ground for jurisdiction had to be that defendant was a resident of Minnesota at the time the action there was filed. Plaintiff filed her suit in Minnesota in the year 1964. Her affidavit for service by publication stated that in 1950 defendant was a resident of Minnesota; that he either concealed himself within the state or departed therefrom to avoid support of his minor children; that plaintiff attempted, without success, to locate him; and that defendant has no place of residence known to plaintiff or her attorneys. Judgment was entered by default. The Minnesota court did not find that defendant was a resident of Minnesota in 1964. It found that defendant was a resident of Minnesota in 1950.
Authorization for service by publication must be based upon facts existing at the time such service is made. Leigh v. Green, 62 Neb. 344, 86 N. W. 1093. In that case the affidavit for service by publication was sworn to two days before the suit was filed, and was attacked for that reason. The court said: “The plaintiff insists that the affidavits were insufficient, and for that reason the court acquired no jurisdiction. * * * One objection urged against the affidavits is that they were sworn to some two days before the petitions were filed in the respective *546cases. The argument on this point, as we understand it, is that between the making of the affidavit and the filing of the petition conditions might have changed so that service might have been had on the defendant in this state, or in some other way, so that the affidavit could not have been truthfully made at the time of filing. It is clear that the law must permit some interval to elapse between the making and the filing of the affidavit, because, strictly speaking, the two acts could not be simultaneous. This being true, the only question that can arise is what length of time it will permit to elapse between the two acts. The statute is silent on the subject; hence the inference is warranted that it will permit a reasonable time. Just what will be regarded as a reasonable time this court has not decided. However, in Armstrong v. Middlestadt, 22 Nebr., 711, it was held that an affidavit made one day before the petition was filed was sufficient. But in that case the court expressly disclaims any intention to go beyond the facts, and, of holding that an affidavit made several days before the commencement of the action would be sufficient. In our opinion, when the petition is filed within such time after making the affidavit that no presumption could fairly arise that the state of facts had changed in the interval, it is sufficient. Crombie v. Little, 47 Minn., 581; Snell v. Meservy, 91 Ia. 322. Applying this rule to the affidavits in question, we do not believe that any presumption of a change in the state of facts, during an interval of two days, could fairly arise.”
As a foundation for jurisdiction in the Minnesota case the affidavit for service by publication must have disclosed, and the court must have been satisfied, that the defendant at that time had legal residence or domicile in Minnesota; or that such fact existed within such a reasonable time immediately prior to the commencement of the action that it could be presumed no change might have taken place.
I do not believe 14 years is a reasonable time. I can *547agree, as stated in the majority opinion, that a domicile, once established, continues until it is superseded by a new domicile. I cannot agree that we can reasonably assume that a domicile has not been superseded by a new domicile in a period of 14 years just because we do not know what the facts are.
The Minnesota Supreme Court, in the case of Sheridan v. Sheridan, 213 Minn. 24, 4 N. W. 2d 785, held that a default divorce decree of an Iowa court, based upon service by publication, in favor of a husband domiciled in Iowa, from his wife who resided in Minnesota, was, upon principles of comity, recognized as terminating the marriage status as a judgment in rem but was ineffective as a judgment in personam.
It is my view that the Minnesota court did not obtain jurisdiction of defendant within the requirements of its own law and was without authority to enter a personal judgment against him. The district court in Nebraska came to this conclusion, and its judgment refusing to register the Minnesota judgment should be affirmed.
For the foregoing reasons I respectfully dissent.