Court Opinion

ID: 9423028
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:05:37.257959+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:22:41.058183
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Harlan,
concurring.
I am happy to join the opinion of the Court because it makes a partial retreat from Vanderbilt v. Vanderbilt, 354 U. S. 416, a decision which I believe must eventually be rerationalized, if not entirely overruled.
The Vanderbilt case was this. The Vanderbilt couple was domiciled in California. Mr. Vanderbilt went to Nevada, established a new domicile, and obtained an ex parte1 divorce decree which did not provide for alimony payments to Mrs. Vanderbilt. In the meantime Mrs. Vanderbilt went to New York. After the Nevada decree had become final, she sued in New York for support under New York law, sequestering Mr. Vanderbilt’s property located there. New York ordered support payments, rejecting full-faith-and-credit arguments based on *87the Nevada decree. Over dissents by Mr. Justice Frankfurter and myself (354 U. S., at 419, 428) the Court affirmed the New York award, holding that because the Nevada court had no personal jurisdiction over Mrs. Vanderbilt, “the Nevada decree, to the extent it purported to affect the wife’s right to support, was void . . . .” 354 U. S., at 419.
Two rules emerged from the case, neither of which, I suggest with deference, commends itself: (1) an ex parte divorce can have no effect on property rights; (2) a State in which a wife subsequently establishes domicile can award support to her regardless of her connection with that State at the time of the ex parte divorce and regardless of the law in her former State of domicile.2
The first rule slips unobtrusively into oblivion in today’s decision, for Florida is allowed to turn property rights on its ex parte decree. A concurrence disputes this, but I do not understand how the Court’s language in this case can be read as anything less. If I may paraphrase only slightly, the Court says, “Insofar as petitioner argues that since she was not subject to the jurisdiction of the Florida divorce court, its decree could not *88extinguish any dower right existing under Florida law, Vanderbilt v. Vanderbilt, 354 U. S. 416, 418, the answer is that the Florida decree extinguished petitioner’s dower rights.” Ante, p. 85. The Court goes on to state and accept the Florida law that an ex parte divorce extinguishes dower rights. I do not see how a withdrawal from the due process phase of Vanderbilt could be clearer.
Because New York was petitioner’s State of domicile at all times relevant to this case and did not purport to invest her with any rights to property beyond those she received from her husband, the second rule is not involved here. My hope is that its time will come too. I continue to believe that the views expressed in my Vanderbilt dissent embody a more satisfactory and workable approach to the law of “divisible divorce” (Estin v. Estin, 334 U. S. 541) than can be distilled from existing Court opinions.

 “Ex parte” throughout this opinion is used to denote a situation in which the divorce court has not obtained personal jurisdiction over the defendant spouse.

 The Vanderbilt result might have been proper on any of three grounds. (1) If New York was Mrs. Vanderbilt’s State of domicile at the time of the ex parte Nevada divorce, New York law investing a wife with support rights should not be overborne by an ex parte decree in another State. (2) If California was Mrs. Vanderbilt’s domicile at the time of the Nevada divorce and under California law support could have been awarded, New York should also be free (though not bound) to award support. (3) If Mr. Vanderbilt owned property in New York at the time of the ex parte divorce, New York might arguably be free to hold that ownership of New York property carries with it the obligation to support one’s wife, at least to the extent of the value of that property.
The Court did not concern itself with the location of Mrs. Vanderbilt’s domicile or Mr. Vanderbilt’s property at the time of the Nevada divorce.