Court Opinion

ID: 9419758
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 22:51:23.771138+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:22:20.480517
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Rutledge,
dissenting in part.
I concur in the opinion except as it holds or implies that the 1938 New York judgment is invalid and therefore is not entitled to full faith and credit in so far as it includes instalments of alimony accruing after October 25, 1935, and interest upon them.
The Court apparently regards the judgment as invalid to this extent because, under the New York procedure, it was docketed without notice to the petitioner additional to the notice he had received in the original proceeding for divorce which resulted in the 1924 decree modified in 1926 *237to provide for the monthly accrual and payment of these instalments.
The bases for this view seem to rest in two assumptions. One is that the 1938 judgment, except as to the arrears accumulated to October 25, 1935, is precisely the same as any other money judgment and therefore falls within the prohibition of Pennoyer v. Neff, 95 U. S. 714. In this view the absence of further notice is equivalent to the absence of any; and the judgment becomes invalid for want of due process for purposes of local enforcement as well as for receiving full faith and credit in other jurisdictions.1 The second assumption is that the docketing of the judgment cut off petitioner’s right to make any of the defenses, relating to matters arising after entry of the 1924 decree, which by the law of New York he was entitled to make (and which he did make in 1935 concerning arrears then accrued) at any time prior to docketing of the judgment. I am unable to accept either of these assumptions.
I.
If it were clear, as the Court seems to hold, that petitioner’s right to make the allowable defenses- was extinguished under the New York law by the docketing of the judgment, we would be confronted with the necessity of determining whether that fact would bring the case within the rule and the reason of Pennoyer v. Neff, supra, *238and later cases following that decision.2 In that event, the question to be decided would be whether it is within the power of a State to provide that, after full notice and hearing in a judicial proceeding resulting in a decree for alimony to be paid in monthly instalments indefinitely, those instalments should or might be docketed in the form of judgments for specific amounts as they accrue without' further notice to the defendant; but with the qualification that he should have the right to come in at any time before an instalment is docketed and show that the circumstances comprehended by the original decree have so changed as to entitle him to reduce or terminate the payments. The effect of such a provision would be simply to put upon the defendant, against whom the decree had been rendered, the burden of bringing to the court’s attention and proving the changed situation.
It is difficult to see how such a provision could constitute a want of due process or of notice in the jurisdictional sense contemplated by the Pennoyer v. Neff line of decisions. Nor has this Court so held heretofore. By the very terms of the alimony decree it is adjudicated that the defendant is liable to pay the instalments as they accrue. And also by its terms, together with the applicable statutes, he is notified that the instalments will be, or may be, docketed as judgments enforceable by execution, unless he takes the initiative in showing to the court before the accrual date, or any later time when the plaintiff may move for entry of judgment, that new conditions have arisen requiring or justifying change or termination. Moreover, in addition to the notice petitioner had received from the original decree and the applicable statutes, he received further notice from the Í936 order, entered after *239contest, by virtue of the court’s finding that he then had no sufficient ground for securing a reduction, although he had contended that he was financially unable to meet these payments.
I cannot understand why such notice, clearly and unequivocally given in advance, is not sufficient both to inform the defendant fully of his peril and to afford full constitutional protection for his rights.8 On the other hand, to compel the wife to give additional notice before docketing of each instalment is to shift to her the burden which the original decree places squarely on the husband. Moreover, in many cases where the amount of the monthly or weekly instalment is small, the effect will be practically to nullify the provision for payment of alimony, because the cost of publishing or otherwise giving notice will equal or exceed the amount of the instalment.3
4 A more perfect tool hardly could be given to an absent or absconding husband for defeating the substance of the award.
*240Due process does not require that notice of suit be given more than once or, when this has been done and a valid judgment entered, that additional notice must be given before execution, original or alias.5 Jurisdiction over the person having been obtained in the original proceeding on adequate notice, further steps in the proceedings are largely within the court’s discretion, except in so far as they are controlled by statute, including proceedings after judgment and on execution. True, these later steps may not be taken arbitrarily.6 But that limitation does not require the giving of notice at each successive stage as upon the original service of summons. Nor does it forbid the court or the legislature to place upon the defendant or other parties responsibility for keeping themselves informed concerning the progress of the cause. Judgment by défault, without further notice than a statutory warning to take steps to ward it off, is an everyday occurrence. After judgment the burden of taking the initiative to avoid the adjudication’s effect falls even more heavily upon the defendant. Unless he assumes and discharges it, he cannot hold up execution for want of special notice that authorized steps to reach his property are about to be taken. Generally speaking, the stage of execution is cotnmitted largely to the plaintiff’s control; and that notice must be given to the defendant at that stage before his property within the court’s jurisdiction can be taken to satisfy the judgment is foreign both to accepted conceptions of due process and to generally prevailing statutory schemes for securing satisfaction.
In. accordance with these principles, if an ordinary money judgment were entered for a fixed sum, but with ' authorized' provision for payment in instalments over a *241definite period, to be collected by levy upon failure to pay any instalment when due, I fail to see what conceivable constitutional objection could be raised against the judgment or any such levy by reason of failure to give notice of the intended levy. Nor do I see how such a scheme could be vitiated were the State additionally to require that the levy, instead of being made automatically or ministerially at the plaintiff’s instance, should be made only after, further order of the court, entered either of its own motion or on application of the plaintiff. Whether judgments shall be paid in a lump sum or by instalments and in either event whether execution shall issue and be levied by one form of procedure or another, with or without further notice, are matters wholly of policy within state power to determine, raising no question of constitutional import.
These principles are not altered fundamentally merely because, in proceedings for divorce, the decree provides that monthly instalments shall continue for the period of need, in accordance with the duty to support imposed by marriage and the birth of children,7 and take the place of a lump sum payment fixed in amount.8 Nor do they become inapplicable because the State sees fit, as a matter *242of policy, to allow the defendant to show that the need,, or the duty created by the decree, has ended'; at the same time making it a condition of securing such relief that he shall take the initiative in showing the changed situation and shall do so before levy is made, under instalments as they accrue. Certainly there is nothing unreasonable, harsh or arbitrary when a State, after full notice, and hear-. ing, determines that the basic familial obligation shall be enforced by judicial decree formulated to embody the obligation in close analogy, if not exact identity, with the obligation’s substantive character, particularly when it affords the husband opportunity for showing a change affecting the substance of the obligation.
The fallacy of the Court’s assumption, it seems to me, is that the opportunity is inadequate if it is limited to the period before the due date of the instalment arrives, or such later date as the wife may select to ask for entry of the order. The Court has held a much less extended period adequate, as against constitutional objections, for purposes of making defense in criminal prosecution. Yakus v. United States, 321 U. S. 414. A fortiori, in view of the character of the obligation and the previous adjudication upon full notice and hearing, the period allowed by the New York law for making further defense should be regarded as constitutionally sufficient, even if that law is thought to cut off that right of defense when the order for judgment is entered.
No more is involved than that the husband is commanded to make payment, unless conditions have changed so as to justify nonpayment when the due date arrives; and, if such changes have taken place, he is adequately warned that he will be precluded from proving or relying upon them to avoid payment of the preexisting judgment, unless he makes the showing on or before that date. If the husband’s defense is payment, he will be able subsequently to vacate' or attack collaterally the judgment, *243since ordinarily it would be fraudulent for the wife to docket a judgment for back alimony no longer owed to her, as the Court’s opinion suggests. Even if there were a legal or factual dispute relating to payment and the wife had acted in good faith in docketing the judgment, as in a case where she had acted in ignorance of prior payment to her agent, it is inconceivable that a court, upon a showing of payment, would refuse to vacate the judgment or that equity would not come to the husband’s aid. Her attempt to enforce the judgment or retain its proceeds after learning of the satisfaction would be fraudulent.
I know of nothing in the Constitution which forbids a State thus to limit the husband’s right to upset the terms of the general decree or which imposes upon the wife the duty of keeping him informed of matters concerning which the law of the State binds him to inform himself. Accordingly, if it were clear, as the Court assumes, that the New York law forbids the husband to bring forward his new defenses, if any, after the entry of the judgment, I should see no valid constitutional objection to the judgment, or a levy made pursuant to it, on the score of want of notice essential to due process.9
II.
But I am not convinced that New York law has the effect of cutting off all right of defense upon the docketing of an instalment for the purposes of execution. Although this Court held in Sistare v. Sistare, 218 U. S. 1, that under New York law accrued instalments of alimony could not be modified, this is no longer the case in New York. N. Y. Civ. Prac. Act § 1170; Van Dusen v. Van *244Dusen, 258 App. Div. 1020, 17 N. Y. S. 2d 96; Eisinger v. Eisinger, 261 App. Div. 1031, 26 N. Y. S. 2d 22. See also Karlin v. Karlin, 280 N. Y. 32, 19 N. E. 2d 669.
It is scarcely probable that, although such modification may be made after accrual but before docketing of judgment, the New York courts would hold that it could not be made after the formal act of docketing. The Court points to no decision which so rules and none has been cited or found. Indeed the Court’s opinion indicates that the husband could set aside the judgment upon showing he had paid the instalment which it included. And in Thayer v. Thayer, 145 App. Div. 268, 270-271, 129 N. Y. S. 1035, which is concededly leading authority upon this general phase of New York law, the court said with reference to the practice of docketing judgments for back alimony without further notice than that given as foundation for the original decree:
“It is sufficient that the court is satisfied from the proof presented to it that both parties are still alive, and that the alimony remains unpaid. If the court is misled and an installment improperly docketed, the defendant will find no difficulty in having the mistake corrected.”
And in Caprio v. Caprio, 169 Misc. 568, 572, 8 N. Y. S. 2d 205, it was stated:
“The docketing of a judgment for back alimony is a recognized practice . . . and the judgment is good if supported by facts, but, like any other judgment, it can be set aside or modified.”
These statements made by courts familiar with the New York practice plainly indicate that in circumstances sufficient to justify such action the courts of New York not only will hear the defendant’s objections after the judgment is docketed but, as in other cases when the showing is sufficient, will set aside the judgment or modify it as the facts may require. This, of course, may not mean *245that he will be heard to raise the identical objections which he might have presented before docketing, since it is entirely possible for the court to find that he was lacking in appropriate diligence in presenting them and should not have further opportunity to do so in view of that fact. But, whether or not this is true, the quoted statements of New York practice clearly indicate that in any case of serious hardship the defendant will not be foreclosed, merely by the docketing of the judgment, from advancing his objections by appropriate procedure and having them determined. In the face of such authoritative expressions concerning the local, law and practice and in the absence of any contrary expression from a source of similar authority, this Court should not substitute its own long-distance judgment or assumption to the opposite effect, especially since on its own theory the constitutionality of the New York statute in question falls on such an assumption.10
III.
If this view of the New York law is correct, the New York judgment is not wholly void for want of due process; for the petitioner is not deprived of any right of defense *246which he may be entitled to make. It is not apparent, nor has he shown, that even now he could not make full defense upon any substantially meritorious ground in the New York courts and succeed in having the judgment set aside.
Nor, as petitioner has made his case, is the question presented whether the New York judgment is so lacking in finality that it is not entitled to receive full faith and credit in other jurisdictions.11 But if that question is taken to lurk inescapably in the record, in the view which I have taken of the state of the New York law, it does not follow that the objection is valid.
The judgment under New York law is prima facie valid, if it is not conclusively so. It affords foundation for the issuance and levy of execution. In the absence of timely assertion of grounds requiring it to be set aside, it becomes conclusive.
This Court has not heretofore held that such a judgment is not entitled to full faith and credit. Contrary dicta reflecting the belief that it would be lacking in necessary finality are, in my opinion, neither conclusive nor sound. Certainly in the absence of any suggestion that the judgment has been questioned in the forum where rendered, adequate opportunity being there afforded, nothing but the most technical and absolute conception of “finality” could be thought to deprive it of credit. Beyond this, it is not apparent why all substantial rights of the defendant would not be fully secured, if the same effect were given to the New York judgment in the suit brought upon it elsewhere as it has in New York.
In the present case this would mean that the judgment would be enforced in the courts of the District of Co*247lumbia, unless after service of summons in the suit for enforcement there the defendant could show to the court’s satisfaction a change in circumstances or other defense sufficient under New York law to require modification or setting aside of the award. Indeed the Court does not altogether foreclose this possibility, since it reserves the question whether, upon further proceedings in the District Court, the wife may amend her claim so as to rest upon the 1924 decree, as modified in 1926; and the husband then may make his defenses allowed by New York law. If that can be done with reference to the original decree, I see no reason why the same thing should be forbidden as to the 1938 judgment. And I think the question should be determined now, not in still another chapter of this long drawn out litigation.
The full faith and credit clause does not in any case require that a judgment, to be credited, must be endowed with absolute finality. It is enough, in my opinion, if the judgment is endowed by the law of its origin with finality sufficient to sustain the issuance and levy of execution, although the same law may afford an opportunity for setting aside or modifying it upon the making of a specified showing. This is true, in my opinion, whether the suit is on the 1938 judgment or on the original decree. There is no sound ground for distinguishing them so as to permit suit, with the right defense, upon the one and not upon the other. The considerations stated by Mr. Justice Jackson in his concurring opinion in Barber v. Barber, 323 U. S. 77, 86, sufficiently state the reasons supporting the views set forth in this paragraph.12
*248Accordingly, whether one view or the other of the New York law is taken, I think the 1938 New York judgment is entitled to full faith and credit in the District of Columbia,13 according to the exact effect it had in New York. Since, in my opinion, the law of that State allowed the defendant on proper showing to make the defense of change in situation, whether before or after the docketing of the judgment, the same effect should be given to the judgment in the District of Columbia. As no adequate basis for modifying the judgment was tendered or proved by the defendant in the District of Columbia proceeding, I think the judgment of the Court of Appeals should be affirmed in its entirety.
Mr. Justice Black joins in this opinion.

 “. . . the duly attested record of the judgment of a state is entitled to such faith and credit in every court within the United States as it has by law or usage in the state from which it is taken.” Adam v. Saenger, 303 U. S. 59, 62; Hanley v. Donoghue, 116 U. S. 1, 5; Hampton v. M’Connel, 3 Wheat. 234; Mills v. Duryee, 7 Cranch 481; 28 U. S. C. § 687.
In this case we are not concerned with the possible exception to the general rule implicit in the situation presented by Williams v. North Carolina, 325 U. S. 226, that a decree for divorce, although not entitled to fall faith and credit in other States, still may be valid as a matter of due process in the State where rendered.

 See McDonald v. Mabee, 243 U. S. 90; Milliken v. Meyer, 311 U. S. 457. See also Restatement, Judgments, § 6, Comment b; § 16, Comment 6; Burdick, Service as a Requirement of Due Process in Actions in Personam (1922) 20 Mich. L. Rev. 422.

 Cf. notes 9 and 13.

 It is no answer to say that the wife may reduce the cost of publication or giving other form of notice by allowing the instalments to accrue over long periods of time and then moving for entry of judgment in the aggregate sum, as the wife was forced to do in this case. The very purpose of the provision for payment by instalments, rather than in a lump sum, is to assure that the wife shall have them as they accrue, as much as it is that the husband shall be allowed to earn them as time goes along. She may be dependent for support of herself and children more upon the promptness of the payments than upon their ultimate certainty. And any technical requirement for notice additional to that giyen by the original decree can only result in depriving the wife of her right to prompt payment, if the husband can take advantage of the requirement and the small amount of the instalments to compel her to let them accumulate. Because delay so often results in loss of substantial rights, the effect frequently will be also to make impossible the ultimate as well as the immediate collection of what is due; and to substitute a right of lifelong litigation for one of certain means of subsistence. The facts of this case afford abundant illustration of both possibilities.

 See Endicott Johnson Corp. v. Encyclopedia Press, 266 U. S. 285; Taylor v. Stowe, 218 Mass. 248, 105 N. E. 890.

 See Brown v. Brown, 62 R. I. 375, 6 Á. 2d 144; State ex rel. Lane v. Montgomery, 221 Mo. App. 1043, 295 S. W. 824.

 There are two principal theories as to the nature of alimony. The modern view is that alimony “is a right of the same character as the right of support lost by the dissolution of the marriage.” The historical view is that alimony “is a settlement of the property rights of the parties and a distribution of the assets of the quasi-partnership hitherto existing.” Kelso, The Changing Social Setting of Alimony Law (1939) 6 Law & Contemp. Prob. 186, 194-195; Wilson v. Hinman, 182 N. Y. 408, 410-412, 75 N. E. 236.

 The duty of support, incurred upon marriage, is not merely the duty of a debtor arising upon a commercial transaction for the payment of a fixed sum with interest. Barber v. Barber, 217 N. C. 422, 428, 8 S. E. 2d 204. Nor .is a judgment which enforces that duty to be treated in all respects as one upon a commercial obligation in order to be constitutionally valid.

 See Jones v. Jones, 204 Ark. 654, 163 S. W. 2d 528; also the authorities cited in note 13. It does not follow, however, that when alimony decrees are enforced by other means, for example through exercise of the contempt power, notice may not be required. Cf. Miller v. Miller, 79 Colo. 118, 244 P. 66.

 The declaration in Sistare v. Sistare, 218 U. S. 1, 22, quoted in Barber v. Barber, 323 U. S. 77, 82, that “every reasonable implication must be resorted to against the existence of” a power to modify or revoke instalments of alimony already accrued “in the absence of clear language manifesting an intention to confer it” was addressed to a different question, finality for purposes of full faith and credit, cf. Part III of this opinion, and, if applied in this case, would be in direct contradiction of the rule that legislation is presumptively constitutional.
Under the decision of the Court, § 1171-b of the New York Civil Practice Act may also be unconstitutional, as that section, enacted since the entry of the 1938 judgment, provides that the application for an order directing the entry of judgment for arrears in alimony “shall be upon such notice to the husband as the court may direct.” It may be that under this wording the New York courts need not direct any notice at all.

 To have objected that the New York judgment was not sufficiently final to be entitled to receive full faith and credit would have been in contradiction of petitioner’s objection that it deprived him of due process, since his due process argument is founded in the view that his rights have been conclusively adjudicated.

 It was just such rigid notions of finality which long prevented recognition of the Court of Claims as a judicial body. See Gordon v. United States, 2 Wall. 561, 117 U. S. 697; United States v. Klein, 13 Wall. 128, 144-145. Subsequently the governing statute of the Court of Claims was amended, and since that time it has never been doubted that Congress may authorize an appeal to this Court from a final *248judgment of the Court of Claims. United States v. Klein, supra; Williams v. United States, 289 U. S. 553, 563-564.
Even if the judgment were not sufficiently final for full faith and credit purposes, it nevertheless would be within the discretion of the District of Columbia to give it effect on grounds of comity. The full faith and credit clause commands States in certain instances to recognize the judgments of sister States; it does not prohibit them from doing so in other' instances. See Jacobs, The Enforcement of Foreign Decrees for Alimony (1939) 6 Law & Contemp. Prob. 250, 263-264. See generally Note, The Finality of Judgments in the Conflict of Laws (1941) 41 Col. L. Rev. 878, 884-887.
Upon the Court’s treatment of the North Carolina law in Barber v. Barber, the reservations made by Mr. Justice Jackson were perhaps not required, since on that treatment the question now presented was not involved.

 See Dadmun v. Dadmun, 279 Mass. 217, 181 N. E. 264, where the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts gave full faith and credit to a New York judgment for arrears in alimony which had been entered without notice to the defendant; Nelson, Divorce and Annulment (2d ed.) § 33.45; cf. Barns v. Barns, 9 Cal. App. 2d 427, 50 P. 2d 463; Defoe v. Defoe, 116 W. Va. 197, 179 S. E. 74.