Court Opinion

ID: 9611120
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 03:52:32.927946+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T14:57:01.748972
License: Public Domain

SCHAUER, J.
I concur in the judgment and generally in the propositions of law discussed in Mr. Justice Spence’s opinion. Such concurrence in the opinion, however, is subject to the reservation that there is intended no implication that a foreign divorce decree, although fully valid insofar as the determination of marital status is concerned, necessarily constitutes a defense to an action for support.
In a divorce action in a foreign state upon constructive service the court there has authority to adjudicate status (in rem) of a person residing in that state but has not jurisdiction to adjudicate away (in personam) any of the then vested property rights of the absent spouse who does not reside in such state, who is not personally served with process in that state and who does not appear in the action. The personal •rights of the spouses in property not within the jurisdiction of the acting court remain subject to litigation in the proper forum. It seems to me that the right of a wife, or in a proper ease the husband, to support from the other spouse as of the date of the divorce is a property right which can be adjudicated only by a court having jurisdiction in personam.
The above stated view does not necessarily conflict with the well established proposition that a court having jurisdiction over a domiciliary may adjudicate his marital status in rem and that (assuming due process) as an incident of the change of status any rights to future accruing support dependent upon a continuing marital status no longer accrue because the status no longer exists. But it is, of course, a familiar principle that alimony decreed as of the date of a divorce may continue into the future when the parties have attained complete termination of the marital status. And I am of the view that rights to support in the form of alimony as of the date of the divorce (which alimony may continue into the single status), at least where there is no adjudication of fault (see Herrick v. Herrick (1933), 55 Nev. 59, 64 [25 P.2d 378]), may well be subject to judicial determination in a subsequent action in a proper forum having personal juris*528diction over both parties. Snch an action, being based on the marital status as it existed prior to the divorce, would have to be instituted before the statute of limitations or laches barred it. The statute would normally start to run as of the date of the decree but would, of course, be tolled by absence of the party defendant from the state.
It is to be noted that the Mexican court in Mr. De Young’s action recognized the distinction between its powers in rem and in personam and expressly provided in its decree that “As there are no children nor properties of the marriage within the jurisdiction of this Court, nothing is to be resolved in this decree regarding these matters.” Here, however, the action before us (commenced November 30, 1942) does not seek alimony based on the former marital status. It is for separate maintenance and plaintiff relies upon the allegation “That she is the wife of Clarence De Young.” The trial court found, upon sufficient evidence “that since June 5, 1936, the parties hereto were not husband and wife and bore no marital relation or obligation toward each other, and that there was and is no community property” and further that “during the month of October, 1937, the plaintiff herein, Helen M. De Young, learned fully that the defendant, Clarence De Young, had obtained a final divorce from her prior thereto. ’ ’ Separate maintenance differs from alimony in that it presupposes a continuing marital status. The right to it cannot be established without proof that such status is existent as of the time of trial. Proof of prior dissolution of the marriage is, therefore, a complete defense to such an action.
Even if we should construe the complaint as setting up a cause of action for alimony as of the date of the divorce decree we could not disturb the judgment. The trial court herein found (and the sufficiency of the evidence in this respect is not challenged) that “since June 1931 to the present time the parties hereto have lived separate and apart from each other and during all of said time and up to the time that this defendant was divorced from the plaintiff ,. . . the plaintiff deserted and abandoned the defendant against his will and wish and without his consent and lived separate and apart from him” and that “during the entire course of the marriage relationship of said parties hereto the plaintiff was guilty of extreme cruelty practiced in and upon and toward this defendant” in many particulars, all as specifically alleged in defendant’s affirmative defense. It is also to be re*529membered that the present action was not commenced until November 30, 1942, although (according to the court’s finding) plaintiff had acquired full knowledge, in October, 1937, that defendant had obtained a divorce prior thereto. In the light of those findings plaintiff is not upon any view of the law or theory of action entitled to recover.
Carter, J., and Traynor, J., concurred.