Court Opinion

ID: 9791547
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 02:13:30.576019+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:37:36.841290
License: Public Domain

Thompson, C. J.,
dissenting:
NRCP 60(b)(3) allows a court to relieve a party from a final judgment that is void. Such a judgment may be challenged at any time. Dredge Corp. v. Peccole, 89 Nev. 26, 505 P.2d 290 (1973); Foster v. Lewis, 78 Nev. 330, 337, 372 P.2d 679 (1962); La Potin v. La Potin, 75 Nev. 264, 266, 339 P.2d 123 (1959). The Nevada divorce decree explicitly declared that the wife was not entitled to an award of alimony. This aspect of the divorce judgment now is challenged as void. The challenge is good.
The Nevada divorce court was without power to adjudicate the wife’s right to support since it did not possess essential in personam jurisdiction. Indeed, the court was as powerless to cut off the wife’s support right as it would have been to order the husband to pay alimony if the wife had brought the divorce action and the husband was not subject to the divorce court’s jurisdiction. These principles are solidly established. Vanderbilt v. Vanderbilt, 354 U.S. 416, 418-419 (1957); Armstrong v. Armstrong, 350 U.S. 568 (1956). Consequently, that part of the decree is absolutely void. The former wife should now be granted access to the Nevada court to litigate her entitlement, if any, to alimony. She has not enjoyed her day in court on that issue. Cf. Portnoy v. Portnoy, 81 Nev. 235, 238, 401 P.2d 249 (1965).
The old case of Sweeney v. Sweeney, 42 Nev. 431, 179 P. 638 (1919), is not relevant to this case. There, both parties appeared before the divorce court and an award of alimony was made. This court ruled that the divorce court was precluded thereafter from modifying the alimony award absent an express reservation of the power to do so. NRS 125.170(1) codifies the Sweeney rule. Obviously, neither Sweeney nor the statute governs the case where the court lacked power to adjudicate the right to alimony in the first instance.
Respectfully, I dissent.