Court Opinion

ID: 9548325
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 18:01:43.867305+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:18:48.672920
License: Public Domain

SCHAUER, J.
I dissent.
The primary question in this case is whether under the circumstances shown we shall use mandamus to compel a trial court to reverse an order dismissing a proceeding before it. This is not a case where the court simply refused to exercise jurisdiction at all; it is not a case where a mooted proceeding is left pending and undisposed of; here the court did exercise its jurisdiction in the premises upon the facts which it found, upon the evidence before it, in the way which it concluded was legally correct, and which finally and completely disposed of the particular proceeding before it. The majority opinion, taking a different view of the evidence and, seemingly, a different view of the law (although this last proposition must necessarily be conjectural, since the majority draws inferences from the evidence different from those impliedly drawn by the trial court), reverses the trial court’s order dismissing an order to show cause.
*782In the exercise of its jurisdiction the trial court had issued the order to show cause, had set a date for hearing thereon, had proceeded with the hearing, had considered evidence from both parties, had impliedly found, upon ample evidence, that before the proceeding had been commenced the defendant in that action (the former wife of petitioner) had left California, taking with her the minor child of such defendant and petitioner and had established for herself and child a domicile outside of California. The trial court had also impliedly found, and there is no room for serious question as to the sufficiency of the evidence, that the defendant and the child had at all times subsequent to their original departure from California remained outside of this state and that the defendant refused to return to California and refused to bring, or to permit anyone to bring, the minor child from its new domicile into California. The evidence as to the fixed intent of the defendant wife to permanently relinquish her domicile in California and to live elsewhere is undisputed.
In the light of the recited facts the trial court- concluded that no useful purpose would be subserved by hearing further evidence as to the claims of the plaintiff for an order temporarily, pending trial of the case on its merits, awarding the custody of the child, or visiting rights, to him, and, accordingly, entered its order dismissing the proceeding. It is such order of dismissal which the majority opinion by mandamus reverses.
Such holding marks a complete about face by this court as to its policy in respect to the use of mandate as a substitute for appeal, and, if we are to have any intelligible thread of consistency in our law on this subject, must be understood as overruling Lincoln v. Superior Court (1943), 22 Cal.2d 304 [139 P.2d 13], and Brock v. Superior Court (1931), 119 Cal.App. 5 [5 P.2d 659]. If there be any ground at all for distinguishing between Lincoln and the case at bar it is that in Lincoln we had a more persuasive case for reversal of the order of dismissal than here. In that case, as here, an order to show cause was issued and came on for hearing. There (p. 307 of 22 Cal.2d), “the defendant husband filed a written motion ‘to vacate, set aside and quash the order to show cause and affidavit’ and declared that he ‘objects to the hearing of said order to show cause.’ The defendant’s written motion specified two grounds: (1) that the superior court was ‘without jurisdiction to proceed with the hearing on said order to show cause by reason of the fact that there is another action *783[the Virginia suit] pending between the above [p. 308] named plaintiff and defendant covering the identical subject matter’; and (2) that ‘the matters to which the defendant . . . is directed to appear and show cause are res adjudicata’ by virtue of the Virginia proceedings.” As to such two grounds of objection to the hearing we frankly and specifically held that “Neither of such grounds raises a jurisdictional point,” thereby recognizing that the trial court erred in granting the defendant’s motion to dismiss. We there held, however, contrary to the view now contended for by petitioner, that the question of error in the ruling was not to be considered in ruling on the petition for mandamus; we confined ourselves to the question, which we then deemed controlling, as to whether the trial court in truth exercised, or refused to exercise, its jurisdiction.
In passing on that controlling issue we said: “It is patent in the record that the superior court had jurisdiction of the cause and of the parties. It is likewise patent that the court exercised that jurisdiction by issuing its order directing the defendant to appear and show cause why he should not be required to make the payments and do the things recited in the order, by conducting the hearing on the order, by receiving and considering evidence, and by entertaining and granting a motion to dismiss.” Every statement of the above quotation is equally true in relation to the ease at bar. Here the petition for the writ alleges that with the evidence (hereinafter epitomized) before it the trial court “refused to proceed with the hearing on the said Order to Show Cause, and made a minute order which reads and provides as follows: ‘Motion of attorney for defendant to dismiss Order to Show Cause for lack of jurisdiction is granted.’ ” (Italics added.)
The cogent force of the Lincoln holding in its direct applicability to the order here involved is made still further apparent by the following language in Lincoln (p. 309 of 22 Cal.2d) : “The petition herein discloses that in addition to the written motion to quash the order to show cause the defendant . . . made an oral motion to dismiss the proceeding and that such motion to dismiss was granted. If the defendant in the trial court had confined himself to an objection to the proceeding therein, on the ground of want of jurisdiction, and if that court had merely sustained such objection and left the proceeding still pending, we should have an essentially different case: there would then appear a failure to *784exercise jurisdiction. But on the showing made the superior court did not stop there. Upon defendant’s application it dismissed the proceeding. The effect is the same, so far as this mandamus application is concerned, as though the suit had been dismissed . . . That the trial judge in the case here involved may have believed that the Virginia court had exclusive jurisdiction is inconsequential. A mere belief in an erroneous proposition of law cannot oust a court of jurisdiction and does not establish a refusal to act. If the trial court here had acted in accordance with such a belief and merely sustained an objection to proceeding with the hearing, we should have a proper factual base, jurisdictionally, for the intervention of mandate. But we are concluded on this phase of the case by the fact that the court, regardless of what its theory may have been, in the action it took exercised its jurisdiction. ’ ’
Here, as previously stated, the court exercised its jurisdiction in the premises by issuing the. order to show cause, by conducting a hearing thereon and by making an order completely disposing of such order to show cause. Whether such order is correct or erroneous is, as it was held in Lincoln, not properly before us. But, in view of the argument made on behalf of petitioner, and to demonstrate that the court did exercise jurisdiction and discretion in the premises rather than simply refuse to act, it seems proper to note the evidence on which it acted. The evidence before the court included the affidavit of the plaintiff ■ it included the order of issuance of the order to show cause and it included the plaintiff’s complaint and the defendant’s answer thereto. From the sworn allegations in such documents the trial court was amply justified, if not as a matter of law compelled, to find that defendant left California in October, 1946, taking with her the minor child, and that at the time she left California she had the fixed and definite intention to cease to be a resident of California and to establish and maintain her residence permanently outside the boundaries of California. Accordingly the trial court was amply justified, if not as a matter of law compelled, to find that at the time the order to show cause was issued (July 8, 1947, and, if it be material, at the time plaintiff commenced his action, January 2, 1947) the defendant’s domicile and that of the child had ceased to be in California.
From the record presented by plaintiff, who is petitioner here, it appears without dispute that plaintiff and defendant separated on June 3, 1946; that plaintiff’s complaint (com*785mencing the litigation here involved) was filed on January 2, 1947; “that the defendant Gladys J. Sampsell left the State of California on October 25, 1946, with the avowed intention of obtaining a Nevada divorce and thereafter marrying William Holt and residing with him at his residence in Salt Lake City. [Italics added.] Six weeks thereafter, and on December 11, 1946, she sued petitioner in Nevada for a divorce, and served him by publication . . . On June 7,1947, the defendant Gladys J. Sampsell carried out her original stated intention by marrying William Holt in Carson City, Nevada, and removing to Salt Lake City, where she has since resided with him. [Italics added.] On July 8,1947, petitioner filed an affidavit in support of an order to show cause for a pendente lite determination of the minor child’s custody, and such order to show cause was issued and made returnable on July 17, 1947, before the respondent Court.”
It is to be noted that the affidavit of plaintiff, which is a part of the evidence which was before the trial court when it entered its order of dismissal, specifically avers that “prior to the 25th day of October, 1946, defendant stated to plaintiff that she was going to divorce him and marry one William Holt, who resided in Salt Lake City, Utah, and on the 25th day of October, 1946, said defendant, without the knowledge or consent of plaintiff, left the County of Los Angeles, State of California, where both plaintiff and defendant had resided since their respective childhoods, with the said minor child of plaintiff and defendant, and went to the City of Las Vegas, State of Nevada. That thereafter plaintiff requested that defendant return to the State of California with the said child, but the defendant has at all times failed, neglected, and refused to do so, and instead of returning and as soon as she had lived for six weeks in Las Vegas, Nevada, and on or about the 11th day of December, 1946, defendant filed a divorce action against plaintiff in the District Court of the State of Nevada, in and for the County of Clark. That service by publication in said divorce action was attempted on plaintiff, but that plaintiff did not appear in said action, and plaintiff was never personally served in said action, for the reason that the State of California was the true domicile of the said parties* *786and the place where any divorce litigation should be maintained, and for the further reason that plaintiff did not have the facilities and his employment did not permit his travelling to the State of Nevada to defend and cross-complain in said action. ... 4. On or about the 7th day of June, 1947, in Carson City, Nevada, the defendant Gladys J. Sampsell married the William Holt whom she stated to affiant that she intended marrying, before going to the State of Nevada to obtain her said divorce, and since said time said William Holt and said defendant have been living together in Salt Lake City, Utah, as man and wife.
“5. That prior to said marriage, defendant continued to maintain a place of temporary abode in Las Vegas, Nevada, and has never had any intention of making the State of Nevada her permanent place of abode. That the only intention defendant had was to divorce plaintiff in the State of Nevada, and then remove to the City of Salt Lake City, Utah, after marrying William Holt, and reside with him in his residence in said last named city, and that the said William Holt has at all times maintained and conducted his business in the said' City of Salt Lake City, Utah, and has never resided or intended to reside in the State of Nevada. [Italics added.]
“6. That during all of the times herein mentioned since the defendant went to the State of Nevada, she has maintained the minor child of plaintiff and defendant with her, and has refused to permit plaintiff to have any custody of the child whatsoever, or to see the said child, or to permit the child to be returned to the State of California ...”
From the above quoted evidence it is obvious that the trial court justifiably found that defendant, with the child, had departed from California and had ceased to be domiciled therein long before the disputed order to show cause was issued. Regardless of whether defendant intended to live in Nevada permanently it is clear that she intended to leave California permanently. The trial court so found and thereupon dismissed the order to show cause. That was a proper exercise, not a refusal to exercise, the jurisdiction of the subject matter which it possessed. (Lincoln v. Superior Court (1943), supra, 22 Cal.2d 304, 309, 315.) But even if we could hold that the court erred in dismissing the order to show cause on the facts and theory above stated it is still inescapable that at the worst it erred in the exercise of jurisdiction. That was, precisely, the situation in Lincoln and in Lincoln we held that we would not use mandamus to correct such an error.
*787It is further to be noted here that it is only the pendente lite order to show cause that has been dismissed. The action still pends. Many times, a trial court in handling domestic relations litigation has occasion to exercise its jurisdiction and its sound discretion in respect to applications for awards of custody of minor children pendente lite by denying such applications and postponing any order as to custody until the ease is tried on its merits. In fact, the usual rule is that in the absence of some substantial showing requiring a change for the protection of a child, the courts will leave custody where they find it until trial on the merits is had.
An application for an award of custody of minor children, as an incident to divorce litigation, is, like an application for alimony pendente lite, in effect a proceeding for a separate judgment which may be made independent of, or preceding, or subsequent to, the final judgment. Although a provision for custody of the minor children may be included in either or both the interlocutory and final decrees, the provision for the custody (and support) of the children may be modified from time to time upon proper showing, regardless of finality of the decrees otherwise. The application for award, or for modification, of custody, may be heard and determined upon a record of its own and may be the subject of a direct appeal. The order of dismissal of the order to show cause was a final determination of that proceeding (Lincoln v. Superior Court (1943), supra, 22 Cal.2d 304, 309), subject, of course, to the right of the plaintiff to make a similar new application, upon proper grounds, at any time during the minority of the child (Civ. Code, § 138). It may be said here as was said in the Lincoln case (p. 314), “ [T]he only objects that would be attained by granting the writ . . . would be to require the trial judge (1) to reverse his ruling in granting the motion to quash and the motion to dismiss, and (2) to resume the hearing of the order to show cause and dispose of it either differently as to result or on a different ground. In other words, the legal objective sought to be attained by the writ is not to compel the trial court to hear and determine a cause, but rather to compel it to rehear and redetermine and reverse its ruling on a question of law [and in this case, apparently, its findings of facts] in a cause it has heard and determined. That it might on such rehearing receive additional evidence, or give different legal effect to the evidence it had received, is beside the point. ’ ’
*788A case which is also squarely in point is Brock v. Superior Court (1931), supra, 119 Cal.App. 5, 6, wherein the following appears: “Petitioner claims that the court has refused to exercise its ¡jursdiction in the matter, but the facts stated in the petition show the contrary. When the order to show cause came before the court the matter was submitted upon a stipulation of facts. Thereupon the court entered an order denying the requested relief, ‘on account of this Court not having jurisdiction to award temporary attorney fees, costs, or support on two grounds; that the child is not within the jurisdiction of this Court, also that provisions in Section 137, Civ. Code., in re Attorney’s fees, costs and support money do not apply in this ease. ’
“It thus appears that the court did not deny its jurisdiction to pass upon the application. It did pass upon and determine said application, but refused the requested allowance, because the court was of the opinion that it did not have authority to make such allowance to a child not residing in this state and not present in this state, in an action to compel a father to support his child. If the court erred in this conclusion (which we do not decide), it was only an error made by the court in the exercise of its jurisdiction. It was not a refusal to antion upon the merits of the matter presented.
‘ ‘ The petition for writ of mandate is denied. ’ ’
The petitioner would have us hang the weight of a mandated reversal of the dismissal on the tenuous thread of an assumption, contrary to all the established objective facts and contrary to the trial court’s implied finding, that the minor child, notwithstanding the valid award of custody to his mother by the Nevada court and notwithstanding her admittedly permanent residence in Utah, is a “domiciliary” of California and therefore, subject to jurisdiction which, the majority hold, the superior court “refused” to exercise when, after considering the evidence pertinent to its jurisdiction of the res and its practical power to enforce any order it might make, it dismissed the order to show cause. The most that can be claimed for the California court, on any view of the evidence, is a fringe of partial jurisdiction. To compel the trial court to reverse its prior order of disinissal, to resume the hearing, and, presumptively, to award custody of the child or visiting privileges to the plaintiff pending trial on the merits, with only partial and inadequate jurisdiction or power to enforce its order, seems to me to be an abuse of the power of this court and of mandamus procedure. “Complete jurisdiction *789includes not only the power to hear and determine, but the power to enforce the determination, as the judgment or decree is the end for which jurisdiction is exercised, and it is only through the judgment and its execution that the power of the court is made efficacious and its jurisdiction complete. To render the jurisdiction of a court complete, it must have jurisdiction over the subject matter, and in actions in personam over the person, or in proceedings in rem over the res or matter in contest.” (21 C.J.S. 35, § 21, and cases there cited.) In 14 American Jurisprudence 364, section 160, it is said that “Complete jurisdiction includes not only the power to hear and determine the cause, but also power to enforce the judgment; and courts usually decline to entertain or to attempt to exercise jurisdiction intended to be complete if it fails to confer power to enforce the judgment which may be rendered . . . [pp. 373-374, § 174] A court having jurisdiction to render a judgment or decree has authority and jurisdiction to make such orders and issue such writs as may be necessary and essential to carry the judgment or decree into effect and render it binding and operative . . . [A] court will not adjudicate where it cannot enforce the adjudication . . . ” In the simplest and most concise language the supreme court of Connecticut says (Bankers' Trust Co. v. Greims (1929), 110 Conn. 36 [147 A. 290, 66 A.L.R. 726, 731]): “It is a fundamental principle that courts will not adjudicate when they cannot enforce.” It seems to me that, even if we assume that the trial court could in some practical manner (which has not yet been suggested) enforce an order for custody pending the trial, we should not, under the circumstances here shown, apply mandamus to compel it to reverse the order made. We, of course, do not know what order might be made after trial on the merits.
Here, both the minor child and his mother, with whom he lives in Utah, are outside the territorial boundaries of California and are domiciled outside California. It is true that the mother has “appeared” in the present California proceeding by the filing of an answer to the complaint through an attorney. But neither the mother nor the child is physically within the State of California and neither is within reach of the sheriff of a California county. The fact that the court has jurisdiction to render an in personam judgment as against the mother does hot mean that such judgment can be executed hpón res beyond the boundaries of the state. The child is *790not a party to the basic litigation, either plaintiff or defendant, nor is he an intervener, cross-complainant or cross-defendant. By a process of elimination, then, it would seem that his relationship to the case insofar as an order awarding his custody is concerned, most logically, is analogous to that of the res the status of which is to be litigated. “A court has no jurisdiction of rights or actions in rem where the property in controversy lies without the limits of the court’s control and its process cannot reach the locus in quo ...” (21 C.J.S. 52, § 43.) It is unnecessary and would be improper for us to speculate here as to what could possibly be accomplished. if the mother were physically within reach of California process and had been ordered to bring the child into the state. No such order has been made and neither the child nor the mother is available to the sheriff in California.
Upon the showing made the order of dismissal was within, and constituted an exercise of, the jurisdiction of the court. Contrary to a statement in the majority opinion that “If we were to hold that the dismissal for lack of jurisdiction based on the facts stated in petitioner’s affidavit is a determination on the merits precluding the issuance of mandamus” some 11 California cases “would have to be overruled,” an examination of the cited cases discloses no holding requiring that under circumstances such as are apparent here the writ must issue. There is broad language, somewhat loosely used in some of those cases, but the fact remains that Lincoln and Brock are the only two California cases squarely in point with the case at bar and those two cases, if we are to be consistent, require that the writ be denied.
Perhaps the most serious objection to the majority opinion, from the standpoint of the profession, is that it leaves the law relating to the use of mandamus as a substitute for appeal in such a confused state that no lawyer or judge will be able to differentiate intelligibly between cases where mandamus will lie to correct error in the exercise of jurisdiction and where it will be denied. I think it is clear that no lawyer or judge of a lower court can carefully read Lincoln (22 Cal.2d 304) and Brock (119 Cal.App. 5) and compare the court action and orders there made with the court action and order here made, and find any substantial legal basis or rule for distinguishing the earlier cases from this one. If the majority determine, as they do here, that our former rather strict policy against using mandate as a substitute for appeal is to be so broadly liberalized, it is my view that, for the sake of clarity *791of the law with which others must deal, they should frankly acknowledge that their opinion is essentially inconsistent with the earlier ones (Brock, 1931, and Lincoln, 1943) and unequivocally declare that those cases are overruled.
Por the several reasons hereinabove elucidated the application for mandate should be denied.
Shenk, J., and Carter, J., concurred.

A mere conclusion of the affiant, so far as domicile of the defendant and of the child is concerned, and incompetent to constitute a substantial conflict in the objective facts from which their domicile is to be inferred. (Johnston v. Benton (1925), 73 Cal.App. 565, 570 [239 P. 60].)