Baumann v. Baumann

132 Misc. 217, 228 N.Y.S. 539, 1928 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 827
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedApril 28, 1928
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 132 Misc. 217 (Baumann v. Baumann) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Baumann v. Baumann, 132 Misc. 217, 228 N.Y.S. 539, 1928 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 827 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1928).

Opinion

Townley, J.

Plaintiff’s husband, married and domiciled in New York, went to Yucatan, Mexico, in 1924, and there obtained from an administrative officer, known as the director general of civil register, a certificate of divorce purporting to divorce him from plaintiff. No notice of the proceeding was given to plaintiff, a resident of New York, and she did not appear therein. This divorce was void. (Andrews v. Andrews, 188 U. S. 14; Haddock v. Haddock, 201 id. 562; Cheever v. Wilson, 9 Wall. 108; Bell v. Bell, 157 N. Y. 719; affd., 181 U. S. 175; Olmsted v. Olmsted, 216 id. 386.) In 1926 the defendants, both residents of New York, went to Stamford, Conn., and went through the form of a marriage before a justice of the peace. The divorce being invalid, the subsequent marriage was also invalid, and the defendants never became man and wife. (O’Dea v. O’Dea, 101 N. Y. 23; People v. Baker, 76 id. 78; Earle v. Earle, 141 App. Div. 611.) After this marriage the defendants announced to the friends and acquaintances of the plaintiff that they had been married, and that the defendant Baumann had obtained a divorce from plaintiff.

Plaintiff has brought this action, seeking a declaratory judgment in which her marital status shall be determined, and an injunction [219]*219restraining the defendants from holding themselves out as husband and wife, from holding the plaintiff out to be divorced, and enjoining defendants from going through any further marriage ceremony. That upon the facts stated in the complaint plaintiff was entitled to some relief was held by the Appellate Division in reversing an order dismissing plaintiff’s complaint for insufficiency. (Baumann v. Baumann, 222 App. Div. 460.)

Defendants here urge in spite of this decision that the court, under rule 212 of the Rules of Civil Practice, should exercise its discretion in denying relief for plaintiff, because an action to annul the Connecticut marriage under section 1134 of the Civil Practice Act would give plaintiff adequate and complete relief, and because the pendency of two divorce actions brought by plaintiff against the defendant Baumann in this court and certain negotiations between the parties as to a possible modification of the separation agreement indicate that plaintiff has some ulterior motive in bringing this action. There is no merit in this claim: The plea that an annulment action would give plaintiff complete relief was rejected by the Appellate Division in reversing the order dismissing the complaint upon this ground". The two divorce actions were inspired by the defendant Baumann, and the attempted mbdification of the separation was brought about by such an increase in defendant Baumann’s means as to reasonably call for an increase in the allowance received by plaintiff and her children. That plaintiff is entitled to have the matrimonial status of the parties to this suit determined is clear. The Appellate Division in its opinion said: Plaintiff has substantial personal and property rights which demand an adjudication as to her status in this State as the wife of the defendant Baumann.”

Defendant claims, however, that relief should be limited to a mere declaration of the status of the parties and injunctive relief should be denied. This question was not passed on by the Appellate Division. The record shows that, immediately following the marriage of the defendants, they sent out engraved cards to the number of several hundred announcing their marriage. Defendants have informed friends and acquaintances of the plaintiff that the defendant Baumann obtained a divorce from her. The defendant Baumann has introduced the defendant Einstein to his friends and acquaintances as his wife, and defendants now live within a few blocks of the apartment in which plaintiff resides. The inevitable result of this is that friends and acquaintances of the plaintiff and the public generally will understand that the plaintiff has been divorced for her own misconduct; her children will be embarrassed and humiliated as the children of a divorced woman. In the social and business world another is claiming the title Mrs. Charles Ludwig Baumann, and is [220]*220being introduced as the wife of plaintiff’s husband, with all the attendant confusion and humiliation which must follow. A mere declaration of plaintiff’s status, without putting an end to this injury, would obviously not grant the plaintiff adequate relief. The mere declaration that plaintiff is the lawful wife of defendant Baumann, and that the defendant Einstein is not his wife, would not stop these defendants from holding themselves out to be husband and wife and holding plaintiff out to be divorced.

From the facts established by the evidence I am of the opinion that the plaintiff is entitled, not only to have a judgment declaring her marital status, but also to injunctive relief enjoining the defendants (1) from holding themselves out to be husband and wife; (2) from holding the plaintiff out to be divorced; (3) restraining and prohibiting defendant Einstein from using the name “ Baumann; ” and (4) enjoining the defendants from going through any further marriage ceremony or ceremonies. The granting of such relief by injunction is supported by the reasoning and principles stated in the following cases: Greenberg v. Greenberg (218 App. Div. 104); Hall v. Smith (80 Misc. 85); Randazzo v. Roppolo (105 N. Y. Supp. 481); Bell v. Clarke (45 Misc. 272); Hawke v. Corri, ([1820] 2 Hagg. Cons. 280). In the Greenberg Case (supra) plaintiff sought and obtained a decree permanently and perpetually restraining and enjoining the defendant from further prosecution of an action for absolute divorce commenced by him against the plaintiff in the civil court of first instance, Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico. Mr. Justice Dowling, writing the unanimous opinion of the court, stated among other things: “If he [defendant] were allowed to prosecute his Mexican action to judgment * * * plaintiff would be in danger of having her status assailed and her rights invaded by having a husband with one wife in New York and another in Mexico. Furthermore, the mere fact that a husband has secured a divorce from his wife gives ground for suspicion at least of the virtue and fidelity of the latter, on the part of the general public, in the domicile of both parties, who are unacquainted with the infinite variety of causes for which divorces may be granted in other jurisdictions and have heard only of the usual statutory ground for divorce in this State. A wife who has given no ground for divorce in this State where she and her husband have always lived during their married life, should not be exposed to the humiliation and doubt as to her status raised by a judgment of divorce in another State, even if fraudulently obtained and invalid here. There are many conceivable uses to which such a judgment of divorce could be put, causing plaintiff expense, litigation, worry, annoyance and misrepresentation. It is no answer to say that she [221]*221must ultimately succeed against, any attack made upon her, under the judgment, as it is invalid.”

In Hawke v. Corri, ([1820] 2 Hagg. Cons. 280, 285) Lord Hawke sued defendant for jactitation of marriage, alleging that he was not married to her, but she boasted that she was his wife.

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Bluebook (online)
132 Misc. 217, 228 N.Y.S. 539, 1928 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 827, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/baumann-v-baumann-nysupct-1928.