Court Opinion

ID: 9545736
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 17:18:26.80714+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:15:26.657906
License: Public Domain

CROCKETT, Chief Justice
(concurring).
I concur but desire to make these comments: Under some circumstances difficulties may be involved in holding that the entry of a final decree of divorce has the effect not only of making the decree final as of a prior date, but also of validating a marriage which was contracted before the final decree was in fact entered. It might produce confusion as to the status of persons subsequently relying on the validity or invalidity of such a decree.
Consider an example which might occur under the California statute: A wife is divorced from husband No. 1; after the year interlocutory period, but before the actual entry of a final decree, she marries husband No. 2; the latter discovers that the decree has never been entered and, relying upon that fact, obtains an annulment; the wife then marries husband No. 3; thereafter husband No. 1 has the final decree entered. The question arises: Which of the subsequent marriages is validated? If the later entry of a final decree would purport to validate the divorce as of a certain date and set in motion a chain reaction to rectify everything from that point on, further complications could exist where children may have been born, deaths, probates and vesting of personal or property rights had occurred based upon the assumption of validity or invalidity of such a decree. It is realized that the children would be legitimate under Utah law and be secure both in status and property rights, but this may not be so as to the spouses or to others whose rights may become involved.
The above difficulty is discussed, not to argue against the affirmance of the judgment, but to acknowledge the existence of the problem and to observe that the ruling herein should be restricted to the facts of this case. If and when situations such as postulated above arise, they would have to be dealt with upon the basis of law and equity applicable thereto.
*235I cannot bring myself to be too much concerned with the precedent this case would establish in that regard because upon facts here existing justice and good conscience seem to render imperative .that the jury verdict and judgment be affirmed. The Ca-hoons married in good faith in the belief that Mrs. Cahoon’s divorce was final. The finding of the jury presupposes that they were living happily together. If some technical defect in the marriage existed it is reasonable to assume that it would have been corrected, as it was. The mere fact of the existence of some such . irregularity should afford the defendant no basis to wrongfully intrude into their relationship.
Analagous to the reasoning which has been applied to property rights: Mr. Ca-hoon had entered into the marriage and acquired such rights as he had in the marriage relationship in good faith and at least had them under what may be called a claim of right and with “color of title.” Any technical defect affected only the rights between the spouses and was having no adverse effect upon the Cahoons. It should confer no right upon anyone assailing the marriage from without. Thus Mr. Pelton had no right to assert against the validity of the marriage and, in fact, had no knowledge other than that it was valid. He nevertheless engaged in the wrongful conduct. Under those circumstances it would seem to the writer a gross injustice to permit a wrongdoer to take advantage of a later discovered technical defect, which was no concern of his, and escape responsibility for having invaded the marriage and destroyed it.