Court Opinion

ID: 9858771
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 16:38:04.017564+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:55:51.924261
License: Public Domain

TRAYNOR, J.
I concur in the judgment.
Under the full faith and credit clause of the United States Constitution, the United States Supreme Court determines what effect state courts will accord judgments of courts of sister states.
As to judgments of courts of foreign countries, however, state courts have generally held that state law is controlling in the absence of treaties or federal legislation. (See Reese, The Status in This Country of Judgments Rendered Abroad, 50 Columb. L. Rev. 783, 787.) For the most part they have followed the rules applicable to judgments of courts of sister states. Given the customary invocation of domicile as the touchstone of divorce jurisdiction in this country, they have generally invoked it also as to divorce decrees of courts of foreign countries. They have refused to recognize such decrees, absent the domicile of either party in the other country, even when that country does not require domicile as a basis for divorce. (See 28 N.Y.U.L.Rev. 742, 743-745.)
Critics, however, have pointed out that a country other than *255the domicile may have a legitimate interest in the marital status of the parties, even though it does not accept the common law jurisdictional concept of domicile. (See Howe, The Recognition of Foreign Divorce Decrees in New York State, 40 Columb.L.Rev. 373, 375-376; 40 Cal.L.Rev. 93, 99-100.) Likewise the New York courts recognize civil law decrees obtained without domicile in the country of the court issuing the decree (e.g., Gould v. Gould, 235 N.Y. 14 [138 N.E. 490]) and, under certain circumstances, the English courts do not make domicile a condition for the recognition of a foreign divorce decree. (E.g., Travers v. Holley [1953], P. 246; see Manning v. Manning [1958], 2 W.L.R. 318; Mann, The Royal Commission of Marriage and Divorce: Jurisdiction of the English Courts and Recognition of Foreign Decrees, 21 Modern L.Rev. 1; Armitage v. Attorney General [1906], P. 135; Griswold, Divorce Jurisdiction and Recognition of Divorce Decrees—A Comparative Study, 65 Harv.L.Rev. 193.)
This court has never expressly ruled on the question whether a finding of domicile is prerequisite to the recognition in this state of a divorce decree rendered abroad.1 Although there was a finding of domicile in this ease, there should be no implication from the court’s opinion herein that would preclude contacts with the foreign country other than domicile as a basis of jurisdiction.
Section 1915 of the Code of Civil Procedure provides: “A final judgment of any other tribunal of a foreign country having jurisdiction, according to the laws of such country, to pronounce the judgment, shall have the same effect as in the country where rendered, and also the same effect as final judgments rendered in this state.” (Italics added.) The first task of the court is thus to determine whether or not the *256foreign court had jurisdiction under the laws of its own country. The problem is not automatically settled, however, if there is a determination that there was jurisdiction. The court must then go on to determine whether recognition of the foreign decree would violate due process limitations or established local policy, for we cannot assume that in section 1915 the Legislature meant to override such limitations or policy. If there is no such violation, a decree of divorce that is valid according to the laws of the foreign country should be recognized here. (See Ruiz, The Effect of Section 1915 of the Code of Civil Procedure on Migratory Divorces Procured in Foreign Countries, 13 So.Cal.L.Rev. 294; Ehrenzweig, Survey of California Law 1950-1951, Conflicts of Laws, 141-142.)
There is no reason to read any requirement of domicile or bona fide residence into the statute. The status of persons as married or not married should be ascertainable with reasonable certainty. The valid judgments of courts of other countries should therefore be respected unless they run counter to local policy. The public policy of California may not permit the recognition of a foreign divorce decree when the foreign jurisdiction has no legitimate interest in the marital status of the parties, when the sole purpose of seeking the divorce in a foreign court is to evade the laws of this state (see Civ. Code, §§ 150-150.4), or when the divorce is ex parte without reasonable notice to the defendant. No such problem arises in the present case, since plaintiff was a bona fide resident of Mexico, neither party was a resident of California, and the defendant had reasonable notice.
Carter, J., concurred.
Appellant’s petition for a rehearing was denied December 17, 1958.

In DeYoung v. DeYoung, 27 Cal.2d 521 [165 P.2d 457], we “assumed without deciding ’ ’ that a divorce decree of a Mexican court could be collaterally attacked here if the plaintiff had not been domiciled in the jurisdiction granting the divorce. In Rediker v. Rediker, 35 Cal.2d 796 [221 P.2d 1, 20 A.L.B.2d 1152], we did not find it necessary to decide whether a foreign divorce decree could be attacked on these grounds, since it was to be assumed in the absence of evidence to the contrary that the plaintiff was a bona fide resident of Cuba and that therefore the foreign court had jurisdiction even if measured by our standards. The District Courts of Appeal of this state have denied recognition to divorce decrees of a foreign country when domicile was lacking, even though the foreign country did not require domicile as a basis for divorce jurisdiction. (See, e.g., Ryder v. Ryder, 2 Cal.App.2d 426 [37 P.2d 1069] ; Marian v. Marian, 70 Cal.App.2d 657 [161 P.2d 490].) These cases should be disapproved insofar as they make domicile a sine qua non of recognition.