Court Opinion

ID: 9764755
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 03:39:05.610729+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:30:01.398717
License: Public Domain

Hammond, J.,
delivered the following concurring opinion, in which Sobeloff, C. J., concurred.
I concurred in the result in this case, not that I thought it right or desirable but rather that it was indicated by a decent respect for the rule of stare decisis and compelled by obedience to the principle of res judicata. On essentially the same facts, in a prior appeal between the same parties reported in 199 Md. 329, 86 A. 2d 520, this Court held that Maryland could not *556compel the husband to pay for any necessaries of the wife or contribute to her support, for the reasons, (1) that the Florida Court had divorced the couple, (2) the Ecclesiastical Courts compelled alimony only where the couple were still technically husband and wife, although legally separated, and (3) even though by statute Maryland has authorized “alimony” where an absolute divorce is granted, and so may compel the man to pay the woman a named or later increased amount of support for an indefinite number of years after he has ceased to be her husband, this can be done only if it is begun in the divorce decree; or if, in lieu of this, there is substituted the magic words “the Court retains jurisdiction” (if these words appear, the man may have to begin support payments twenty years after he has ceased to be a husband) ; otherwise, the support payments would not be “alimony” as known to the Ecclesiastical Courts because, when sought, the man and the woman are strangers in the eye of the law.
A Maryland Court had awarded Mrs. Johnson a divorce a mensa and alimony secured by the deposit in Court of property of Mr. Johnson. When this decree was passed, Maryland had unquestioned jurisdiction of the wife, the husband, and the property. It still has jurisdiction of the wife and the property. Yet the Court in this appeal cuts off support for the wife because Florida has dissolved the marriage, and the jurisdiction of Maryland to continue that support dies with that dissolution; the result, under that reásoning, is the same no matter how the marriage ends — by death, by a Maryland divorce, or by a divorce in another State. Johnson v, Johnson, supra.
In some States the Courts have refused to penalize their citizens by blind adherence to an illogical theory. In these jurisdictions, the' Courts hold that if another State has granted an ex parte divorce, the obligation' of support for the wife which has been recognized by the Court of the home State will hot be affected. The divorce is divisible in that it is valid as á dissolution of the *557marital bonds but unavailing to relieve the husband of his duty of support. Estin v. Estin, 296 N. Y. 308, 73 N. E. 2d 113, aff'd. 334 U. S. 541, 68 S. Ct. 1213, 92 L. Ed. 1561. If the wife appears in the foreign divorce action, the jurisdiction of the Courts in the home State is superseded. This is because the foreign Court, having jurisdiction of both parties, has power to rule on the matter of support and its decree is res judicata and must be given full faith and credit by the home State. Lynn v. Lynn, 302 N. Y. 193, 97 N. E. 2d 748, 753, 28 A. L. R. 2d 1335. Since Mrs. Johnson appeared in the Florida case, it would seem at first blush as if she would be bound by the decree passed there, and even in a divisible divorce jurisdiction, would have no just ground for further relief in her home State. However, the Florida Court, in its amended decree, provided expressly that nothing therein should be held to relieve the husband from complying with the Maryland decree for the payment of support. Thus the rule of res judicata would not relieve the husband here if Maryland were a divisible divorce jurisdiction. In Lynn v. Lynn, supra, the New York Court of Appeals distinguished a case where a foreign divorce is granted ex parte from one where the wife appears, by saying first that an express denial of, or an award of, alimony would be conclusive, and then adding: “As long as the Court in the divorce action had personal jurisdiction of both parties, its decree, as rendered or as subsequently modified, must be taken to determine the husband’s obligation of support, and the failure to grant alimony is properly treated as the equivalent of a denial of such relief.. . . It follows, then, that the alimony provisions of a prior judgment of separation must yield to the overriding effect of the divorce decree.” (Emphasis mine). Here the Florida Court negatived the idea that its failure to award alimony was the equivalent of a denial. In Florida, an unsuccessful defendant wife generally is entitled to alimony except where she is guilty of adultery, which is not the case here. Certainly, the Florida Court intended and expected that the *558Maryland support payments would continue. I think that they should, and that Maryland Courts should have power to require them.
Under the reasoning and holding of Staub v. Staub, 170 Md. 202, 183 A. 605, if Mrs. Johnson had ignored the Florida divorce proceedings and the divorce had been granted ex parte, Maryland would have no jurisdiction to give or continue alimony. In these days of Nevada, Florida, Arkansas, and other prolific divorce States, this puts a separated wife in a real predicament. She is on the horns of a dilemma, having the alternative of submitting to the jurisdiction of a foreign Court, where as an out-of-state defendant, she is under a disadvantage in seeking alimony, or of ignoring the foreign divorce proceeding and losing the alimony granted by her home Court entirely. Under the mores and practices of the times, it is hardly fair for Maryland to put its lady citizens in this predicament because of a narrow, artificial and unrealistic concept and judicial interpretation of alimony.
I say narrow, artificial and unrealistic for this reason. Divorce was unknown under the common law, and is of statutory creation in Maryland. Limited divorces with alimony were granted in England by the Ecclesiastical Courts. Here the Legislature at first granted divorces but the Courts of Chancery assumed jurisdiction of alimony. By what is now Section 14 of Article 16 of the Code, passed in 1777, Courts of equity were expressly given alimony jurisdiction. The Act provided: “The Courts of equity of this State shall and may hear and determine all causes for alimony, in as full and ample manner as such causes could be heard and determined by the laws of England in the ecclesiastical Courts there.” Alimony as known to the Ecclesiastical Courts was support granted where there was a divorce a mensa: In 1841, by what is now Section 15 of Article 16 of the Code, the Legislature provided that in all cases where divorces were granted, alimony may be awarded. There is no definition of alimony'in the Statutes, and, since *559the Act of 1841, in exercising the jurisdiction granted by that Act, the Courts have modelled the support awarded in divorces a vinculo in the image of alimony as it had been known to the Ecclesiastical Courts. It is immediately apparent that the judicial concept of alimony as authorized by the Act of 1841 was illogical because under the ecclesiastical law, alimony is support of the wife by the husband as long as they are both living and are married to each other. The limited divorce granted by the Ecclesiastical Courts was nothing more than a legally authorized separation and did not destroy the status of husband and wife; therefore, it was entirely consistent and logical that the husband be required to support the wife even though they were living apart. Since the divorce a vinculo severs the matrimonial status, alimony in the traditional sense cannot rationally be compelled after an absolute divorce.
In reality, the alimony permitted by Section 15 of Article 16 of the Code is a legislative permission for the Court to require a former husband to pay support to his former wife. Indeed, under the holdings of this Court — Emerson v. Emerson, 120 Md. 584, 87 A. 1033, recognized by Johnson v. Johnson, supra — the support which the Court has required to be paid, may be increased or decreased, or otherwise controlled long after the marriage has ended, merely because the Court has jurisdiction at the time the divorce was granted. In the present case, the Court had jurisdiction at the time the alimony was awarded to Mrs. Johnson, and it is just as logical to say here that it does not lose that jurisdiction as it is to say that a Maryland Court which grants an absolute divorce and reserves jurisdiction may, years after the couple have ceased to be husband and wife, double, or triple, the amount of alimony originally granted. What I am saying is that there is no magic in the word “alimony” and the decisions which originally construed Section 15 of Article 16 might well have held that the Courts had jurisdiction to award support to a former *560wife at any time it felt that the interests of justice and the parties required it.
The decisions show that the support awarded in an absolute divorce is not historical alimony and show the incongruous results which have flowed from the attempts to work with it as if it were. In Emerson v. Emerson, supra, it was decided that Section 15 of Article 16 was intended to provide for alimony “of the same character and limitations as the alimony the Courts had so long dealt with”; specifically, that it was a provision for support from income, not a division of property. It was held further that, “jurisdiction exists in the Courts of Equity to modify that part of the decree providing for alimony whether the decree grants divorce a vinculo or a mensa”
In Clarke v. Clarke, 149 Md. 590, 131 A. 821, the decision was that a decree of divorce a mensa which expressly provided that the wife should receive no alimony, may be modified in this respect even after enrollment, by reason of altered circumstances.
In Marshall v. Marshall, 162 Md. 116, 159 A. 260, 83 A. L. R. 1237, the Court said that unless an a vinculo decree either awards alimony, or reserves jurisdiction, the Court is powerless, after the decree has become enrolled, to award alimony. Under ■ this decision, if the Court awarded alimony of one cent a year, it could at any time, years later perhaps, require the husband if his circumstances warranted it, to pay ten thousand dollars a year. Also, by adding four words — “The Court retains jurisdiction” — alimony could be given for the first time twenty years after the decree.
Clearly, if what the Legislature authorized were .other than support for a former wife, no increase or commencement of “alimony” could be given years after a couple ceased to be man and wife merely because at the time of the divorce, some amount was awarded or four words were added to a decree.
In Tome v. Tome, 180 Md. 31, 22 A. 2d 549, it was held that although a Court may, in an absolute divorce, *561compel the husband to pay the counsel fee of the wife, as well as alimony, and may at any time increase the alimony, yet the wife is not entitled to a counsel fee in her successful attempt to have the alimony increased, because she is no longer a wife.
The unfortunate distinctions in the results of the cases which have been produced by the restricted concept of alimony where there is an absolute divorce, are not likely to be cured by judicial decision for the reasons which prompted me to concur in this appeal. It is best, perhaps, if they are not. If a change is to be made in the established law, it would seem appropriate that the Legislature make it. The soundness and integrity of the judicial process are thus preserved.
There has been recent evidence that in both popular and legal thinking, technical distinctions between support and alimony are being eliminated. So that a Court could imprison for failure to pay support, as well as alimony, the Legislature and the people of Maryland, in 1950, amended Section 38 of Article 3 of the Constitution to provide that: “. . . a valid decree of a court of competent jurisdiction or agreement approved by decree of said court for the support of a wife or dependent children, or for alimony, shall not constitute a debt. . This is certainly evidence from a fundamental source that support and alimony are, in substance, identical. See also the Uniform Reciprocal Enforcement of Support Act — Article 89C of the Code, first passed by the Maryland Legislature in 1950.
If the Legislature amended the law so that a Court would have the power to require support of a former wife at any time that the interests of justice and the parties required it, regardless of whether the divorce decree had provided for alimony or had retained jurisdiction, it would add flexibility where both parties are Maryland residents, or where, as in the instant case, the wife and the property of the husband are in Maryland. The result which could have been achieved and which I would have urged in the present case, if the *562proposed change had been the law, would be far more fair and just than the result which had to come under the present state of thé law.
Chief Judge Sobeloff has authorized me to say that he concurs in this opinion.