Court Opinion

ID: 9450997
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 17:02:33.32745+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:32:31.224714
License: Public Domain

FRIENDLY, Circuit Judge
(dissenting) :
Although, as was said of another ruling as to divorce, “I do not suppose that civilization will come to an end whichever way this case is decided,” Haddock v. Haddock, 201 U.S. 562, 628, 26 S.Ct. 525, 551, 50 L.Ed. 867 (1906) (Mr. Jus-tive Holmes dissenting), I cannot subscribe to my brothers’ disposition of this appeal.
I agree Congress did not intend that the Commissioner in making tax determinations revolving around marital status, or the courts in passing upon them, should set themselves up as domestic relations tribunals. Hence I would join with the majority if the Mexican divorce stood unimpeached, even though we would have every reason to believe a New York court would have annulled it at Ruth’s request, since New York regards such an ex parte Mexican decree as “a clear legal nullity * * * and of no more validity than a so-called mail-order divorce,” Ro-senbaum v. Rosenbaum, 309 N.Y. 371, 376, 130 N.E.2d 902, 904, 54 A.L.R.2d 1232 (1955).1 But here we need not speculate whether Ruth would accept the divorcee status Herman sought to thrust upon her or what a New York court would do if she didn’t. New York, the state where Herman and Ruth had lived and Herman and Hermine were living, through a court having personal jurisdiction over all persons in this triangle, adjudged at Ruth’s instance that the ex parte Mexican decree “is invalid, and of no force or effect in law,” that Ruth was Herman’s lawful wife, and that Herman and Hermine “are not husband and wife.” See Borax v. Borax, 119 N.Y.S.2d 819 (Sup.Ct.1953).
Under the Constitution that judgment not only is binding in New York but is entitled to recognition in every state, as indeed it would be if the challenged divorce had been granted by a sister state. Sutton v. Leib, 342 U.S. 402, 407-409, 72 S.Ct. 398, 96 L.Ed. 448 (1952). By statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1738, coming down from the first Congress, 1 Stat. 122 (1790), it is entitled to full faith and credit “in every court within the United States.” I find no basis for believing that when Congress spoke of a wife who is “divorced,” 1939 I.R.C. § 22(k), 1954 I.R.C. § 71(a) (1), it meant a wife who had been pronounced to be so by a piece of paper which has been drained of all legal vitality and no court in the land may lawfully respect in a suit between the parties most concerned. I am equally unable to understand how, under modern developments in the law of collateral estoppel, Herman and Hermine can challenge, as against the Commissioner, a proposition which, after full opportunity, they unsuccessfully challenged against Ruth, see Kurlan v. C. I. R., 343 F.2d 625, 628 n. 1 (2 Cir. 1965), and authorities there cited — especially when one result of a successful challenge should be a tax against Ruth on the amounts sought as a deduction by Herman. Yet as to this *677last, I cannot see how when the Commissioner, confronted with my brothers’ decision, presses his protective petition to review the Tax Court decision annulling the determination of a deficiency against Ruth, we could overcome her reliance on the New York judgment consistently with 28 U.S.C. § 1738, save by giving the language of the Revenue Codes a construction which, as indicated, I think indefensible. If that be so, it sufficiently indicates the error in the decision here.
I recognize that my view puts me in conflict with Feinberg v. C. I. R., 198 F. 2d 260 (3 Cir. 1952), since I join my brothers in finding the Commissioner’s distinctions of that case insubstantial. But my regret in having to part company with another court of appeals is lessened by my inability to follow the majority’s distinction of Gersten v. C. I. R., 267 F.2d 195, 199-200 (9 Cir. 1959). The two decisions seem basically inconsistent; indeed, Feinberg, where a judgment had decreed the divorce to be invalid, was in some ways a stronger case for the Commissioner than Gersten. We thus cannot avoid conflict with another circuit, however we decide this case.
I would affirm.

. Nothing to the contrary was held in the recent cases of Rosenstiel v. Rosenstiel, 16 N.Y.2d 64, 262 N.Y.S.2d 86, 209 N.E.2d 709 (1965), and Wood v. Wood, 16 N.Y.2d 64, 262 N.Y.S.2d 86, 209 N.E.2d 709 (1965), decided since this appeal was argued.