Court Opinion

ID: 9736037
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 18:41:29.738863+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:41:52.915408
License: Public Domain

Dissenting Opinion
Arterburn, J.
I regret that I cannot agree with the reasoning of the majority opinion in this case. I disagree on two basic grounds — first, I feel the majority opinion has weighed the evidence on appeal, when the only duty here is for us to review the evidence most favorable to the finding of the trial court. It is said that “The law is well settled that the burden of undermining the decree of a sister state rests heavily upon the assailant.” Be that as it may, in a civil action the burden is always heavily upon the plaintiff to prove his case (by a preponderance of the evidence) in the trial court. Yet on appeal, we must review the evidence most favorable to the sustaining of the trial court’s judgment, regardless of the burden of proof in the trial court.
We further point out that the statement that “the burden of undermining the decree of a sister state rests heavily upon the assailant” (our italics) has no substantial reason for its existence. So far as we can discover, it was plucked out of thin air and used for the first time by Justice Frankfurter in Williams v. State of North Carolina (1945), 325 U. S. 226, 65 S. Ct. 1092, 89 L. Ed. 1577, 157 A. L. R. 1366, without any authoritative support. In Ulrey v. Ulrey (1952), 231 Ind. 63, 106 N. E. 2d 793 the phrase was merely repeated.
*519To say the burden “rests heavily” on a party should mean no more than the general rule that a party has the burden of proving his case by a preponderance of the evidence in the trial court. Upon appeal, however, we should not (as is done here) reexamine the evidence to determine if the “preponderance” is with the party having the burden of proof. The determination of that question rests solely in the trial court. We, on appeal, accept only the evidence most favorable to the sustaining of the trial court’s decision, and if we find there is any evidence to support the decision, we must affirm it. I feel under the principles applicable, the judgment of the trial court is sustained by sufficient evidence.
There is a second reason why I cannot agree with my colleagues in the majority opinion. This case not only involves the dissolution of the marriage status of the parties, but also the settlement of certain property, support and contractual rights, that grow out of a marriage.
Appellant states in his brief, one of the issues:
"... to be resolved upon this appeal is, . . . assuming that this Court holds that the Elkhart Circuit Court was required to give full faith and credit to the Nevada Decree, whether the Elk-hart Circuit Court had any power thereafter in this action to award alimony, to dispose of Indiana property formerly held by appellant and appellee as tenants by entireties, to award attorneys’ fees to appellee and to provide for the support and custody of a minor child.”
I feel there has been a failure to recognize clearly that a divorce action is not solely an action in rem, but is a mixed action involving rights in personam as well. The question is, is a state’s legal power over the marital status on constructive service sufficient to *520destroy the legal duties to furnish support to an abandoned spouse, to make a fair division of the property, and to fix the custody of children, when the abandoned spouse and children are still domiciled in another state (the last martial domicile) ? Ought we to allow the court of a sister state on constructive service, with no personal jurisdiction over the other spouse or the children, not merely to disolve the marital relationship (and permit a remarriage) but also to free that spouse from the economic duties of support, to make a fair division of the property acquired during the marriage and to fix the custody of the children? Does the full faith and credit clause of the United States Constitution require such a broad and extended application so as to cover rights which are normally considered personal rights, the subject of personal actions where personal service is necessary to acquire jurisdiction, as distinguished from in rem actions? The hardships in these cases have frequently been pointed out.
“ . . . The problem becomes acute when the other spouse is a wife who has been abandoned by the husband on grounds not recognized as •the basis for divorce by the last marital domicil. In cases of this kind the wife is often without adequate means to appear in the other State and defend the action; if she does do so and the court there finds that the husband has acquired a bona fide domicil in that State, that finding will be conclusive on her. The question reduces itself to this: shall the social policy of the last marital domicil yield to that of the husband’s new domicil, not only on the question of the husband’s ability to acquire a new wife but also on that of the cessation of a duty of economic support?” 18 Ind. L. J. 165, p. 181.
The case of Haddock v. Haddock (1906), 201 U. S. 562, 26 S. Ct. 525, 50 L. Ed. 867 was a denial of this *521power to the husband’s new alleged domicile. The facts of the Williams Case, supra, presented no such problem as to what becomes of the personal obligations of the husband for support, division of the property, etc. It is conceded that the full faith and credit clause does not apply to personal actions unless personal service is obtained and jurisdiction thereby acquired over the opposite party. There is no reason why the marital status of the parties may not be split off from the personal obligations of support, division of property, etc. that are owed personally to the other spouse by the husband, and those be settled in accordance with the social policy of the State where the other spouse has retained a continued domicile.
This appears now to be the trend of the thinking of the United States Supreme Court in more recent decisions after rendering some awkward decisions in this field of the law in the past. In Estin v. Estin (1948), 334 U. S. 541, 68 S. Ct. 1213, 92 L. Ed. 1561, where the jurisdictional extent of a Nevada divorce obtained upon constructive service was considered, the court, in holding that a judgment for support in New York was not thereby nullified, said (at p. 545) :
“But the fact that marital capacity was changed does not mean that every other legal incidence of the marriage was incidentally affected.”
The court further stated:
“ . . . That is an attempt to exercise an in personam jurisdiction over a person not before the court. That may not be done. Since Nevada had no power to adjudicate respondent’s rights in the New York judgment, New York need not give full faith and credit to that phase of Nevada’s judgment. A judgment of a court having no jurisdiction to render it is not entitled to the full faith *522and credit which the Constitution and statute of the United States demand. (Cases cited)
“The result in this situation is to make the divorce divisible — to give effect to the Nevada decree insofar as it affects marital status and to make it ineffective on the issue of alimony. It accommodates the interests of both Nevada and New York in this broken marriage by restricting each State to the matters of her dominant concern.”
This opinion was later amplified in Vanderbilt v. Vanderbilt (1957), 354 U. S. 416, 77 S. Ct. 1360, 1 L. Ed. 2d 1456, in which the court stated (p. 418) :
“In Estin v. Estin, 334 U. S. 541, this Court decided that a Nevada divorce court, which had no personal jurisdiction over the wife, had no power to terminate a husband’s obligation to provide her support as required in preexisting New York separation decree. The factor which distinguishes the present case from Estin is that here the wife’s right to support had not been reduced to judgment prior to the husband’s ex parte divorce. In our opinion this difference is not material on the question before us. Since the wife was not subject to its jurisdiction, the Nevada divorce court had no power to extinguish any right which she had under the law of New York to financial support from her husband. It has long been the constitutional rule that a court cannot adjudicate a personal claim or obligation unless it has jurisdiction over the person of the defendant.”
I further believe the present opinion permits the full faith and credit clause of the Constitution to override the due process clause and the clause against impairment of the obligation of contracts. Due Process under the Constitution does not permit the destruction of personal obligations created by contract, tort or otherwise, without personal service and jurisdiction acquired thereby. It has been well said:
*523“ . . . Whether a proceeding is in, rem or in personam is determined by its nature and purpose, and by these only. A proceeding in personam is a proceeding to enforce personal rights and obligations brought against the person and based on jurisdiction of the person,, although it may involve his right to, or the exercise of ownership of, specific property, or seek to compel him to control or dispose of it in accordance with the mandate of the court. In a proceeding in personam the court acts upon its jurisdiction over the person. In fact, the chief value of the distinctions between actions in, this respect is in the determination of the sufficiency of the service of process on the defendant.” 1 Am. Jur., Actions, §44, p. 435.
Support is a personal property right, for the loss of which (as by negligence of a third party) one is entitled to an action for damages. Due process will not permit the adjudication or destruction of such a right or obligation in an action, based solely on constructive service.1 Likewise the contractual obligations resulting from a marriage may not be impaired under the Constitution by divorce legislation of another state when operative only on constructive service!
Because of the social injustices arising from these so-called “migratory divorces”, our conscience will always be stung if we permit the full faith and credit clause of the Constitution to override and take dominance over other clauses in the Constitution for the protection of social injustices. It is legally wrong *524to assume that a sister state may, upon constructive service, dissolve the marriage status and also take over jurisdiction of the personal obligations existing between the parties and dissolve them when they are so personal that under no stretch of imagination can they be considered the subject of in rem actions. I think the trial court having personal service on the appellant-husband properly assumed jurisdiction in this case to fix the support obligation of the husband under the marriage contract, which was personal, and also to fix the property rights of the parties, particularly the real estate, the situs of which was in Indiana, as well as the custody of the children. Nevada had no jurisdiction based on constructive service to make such an adjudication.
I would affirm the judgment of the trial court.

. It is interesting to note that if the due process clause is involved, the federal courts do not consider whether or not the full faith and credit clause compels them to accept the adjudication of a state court in a criminal case. The federal court has no hesitancy in a habeas corpus proceeding to collaterally attack a state court’s conviction and free a state prisoner, regardless of the state adjudication. Full faith and credit for judgments is just as important in criminal cases as in divorce cases, if not more so. It is difficult to understand why there should be a lopsided respect for it in the latter instance and none in the former. 12 Am. Jur., Constitutional Law, §705, p. 379.