Closson v. Closson

215 P. 485, 30 Wyo. 1, 29 A.L.R. 1371, 1923 Wyo. LEXIS 30
CourtWyoming Supreme Court
DecidedMay 29, 1923
DocketNo. 1047
StatusPublished
Cited by25 cases

This text of 215 P. 485 (Closson v. Closson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wyoming Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Closson v. Closson, 215 P. 485, 30 Wyo. 1, 29 A.L.R. 1371, 1923 Wyo. LEXIS 30 (Wyo. 1923).

Opinion

Kimball, Justice.

Orville L. Closson, respondent here and plaintiff below, brought this action in the District Court of Campbell County, Wyoming, against Clara F. Closson, appellant here and-defendant below, to recover the possession of a tract of land consisting of 163.47 acres in that county. The parties were formerly husband and wife. The defendant denied the plaintiff’s title and right to possession, and by cross-petition in the nature of a petition to quiet title, alleged that she was the owner and in lawful possession of the land by virtue of a decree of the same court in an action for divorce wherein she was granted a divorce and the land in question was set over to her. By his answer to the cross-petition the plaintiff admitted-the rendition of the decree in the divorce action, but alleged that so much thereof as was designed' to set over to defendant the land in question was void for want of jurisdiction. Upon the issue thus raised the trial court found for plaintiff and from a judgment in his favor the defendant appeals.

The parties were married in South Dakota in 1902. In 1907, under the Homestead Act of May 20, 1862, the husband made entry of the land in dispute. Final proof was made in September 1914, and patent was issued to him April 7, 1919. Wyoming was the domicile of matrimony of the parties, and this land their home, when, in September, 1918, the husband deserted the wife. Since their separation, the wife has continued to occupy the land' as her home, and the husband has resided in South Dakota. Such was the situation of the parties in March, 1920, when the wife commenced heq action for divorce. Her petition in that action, in addition to the allegations in support of the application for a divorce on the ground of desertion, alleged that the only property in Wyoming which the husband [7]*7owned or in which he had any interest was 163.47 acres of land upon which she (the wife) then and for the past eleven years had resided; that said land had been entered and patented under the homestead laws of the United States, and that the improvements thereon were the results of her labor and expenditures. The prayer was “that she have an absolute divorce from defendant, and that the real property herein mentioned be set over to her, and such other and further order or orders be made as may be meet in the premises. ’1

. After the filing of an affidavit for service by publication, service was had in that manner. The husband alleges that he-had no- actual notice of the divorce action during its pendency, but the sufficiency of the service to give the court jurisdiction to grant a divorce is not questioned. The point is made that neither the affidavit for .service by publication, nor the published notice, recited anything with reference to the disposition of the homestead. The affidavit stated that the action was for divorce, one of the actions mentioned in the 9th subdivision of Section 4366, C. S. 1910 (§ 5636, C. S. 1920), and the published notice recited that the object and prayer of the petition was “for an absolute divorce from you (the husband) on the grounds of abandonment and desertion for a period of more than one year next prior to the date of filing her (the wife’s) said petition, and as more fully appears from her petition now on file in said court. ’ ’

The husband did not appear in any way in the divorce action, and on August 4, 1920, the case was heard, and the court made a decree which recites that service had been had upon the defendant husband by publication as by law required; that he had failed to file any answer, demurrer or other pleading; that on being called in open court he failed to appear at the trial, and that evidence having been adduced in support of the petition; the court found! that plaintiff was entitled to a divorce, and it was so decreed. It was further decreed that the “real property, situated in [8]*8the County of Campbell and State of Wyoming be, and the same is hereby set over to the above named plaintiff, Clara F. Closson, ’ ’ followed by a correct description of the land in question, “containing 163.47 acres.” It is conceded that the land described in the decree was the land occupied by the wife and the same land referred to in her petition for divorce.

As already indicated, the husband, as plaintiff in the present action, admitted the validity of this decree in so far as it granted the divorce, but denied the jurisdiction of the court to grant further relief by setting over the property-in question to the divorced wife. This being a collateral attack, the question so raised was whether the challenged portion of the decree was valid until set aside.

Before discussing the statutory authority of courts having jurisdiction to grant divorces in this state, we may observe, generally, that marriage, though considered a civil contract, is also something more. From the contract springs a relation or status in which the state and the public are interested, and which has always been deemed subject to 'the control of the legislature by laws which may, among other things, prescribe the effect of the relation upon the property rights of the contracting parties. Maynard v. Hill, 125 U. S. 190, 8 Sup. Ct. 723, 31 L. ed. 654. At common law, including the law as administered in the ecclesiastical courts of England, total divorces were not granted except on grounds which rendered the marriage void ab initio, and prior to 1858 a valid marriage could not be disolved in that country except by act of parliament. 1 Blackstone Com., 440. Alimony was an incident to divorce from bed and board, or separation, and was granted to enforce the duty of support owed by the husband to the wife. Davis v. Davis, 134 Ga. 804; 68 S. E. 594, 30 L. R. A. (N. S.) 73, 20 Ann. Cas. 20; Lemp v. Lemp, 249 Mo. 295, 155 S. W. 1057, Ann. Cas. 1914 D. 307. So, it is apparent that our laws with reference to the division of property or the awarding of alimony upon the dissolution of a valid [9]*9marriage have little basis on English precedents or common law principles, and are peculiarly dependent on local statute law.

In this state a divorce from the bonds of matrimony may be decreed by the District Court for many causes which do not affect the validity1 of the marriage. Sec. 4990, C. S. 1920. The action is commenced by petition of the aggrieved party, and is conducted in the same manner as civil actions. Sec. 4995. However, the interest of the state in the proceeding is evidenced by several provisions which have no application to any other civil actions, such as Section 4992, to prevent collusion, and Section 5013, providing that no decree shall be made solely on the declarations, confessions or admissions of the parties. A defendant’s default or failure to answer admits no facts material either to the right of divorce or to its incidents. Hughes v. Kepley, 60 Kans. 859, 58 Pac. 556. The court is authorized to make orders for the care and custody of the children and for the payment of alimony pending the action (§§ 4997-4998), and it is further provided (Sec. 4999) that:

“The court, in granting a divorce * * * may make such disposition of, and provision for, the children as shall appear most expedient under all the circumstances,

And by Section 5000, that:

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Wiles v. Wiles
871 P.2d 1026 (Court of Appeals of Utah, 1994)
Race v. Race
740 P.2d 253 (Utah Supreme Court, 1987)
Hendrickson v. Hendrickson
583 P.2d 1265 (Wyoming Supreme Court, 1978)
Burnell v. Roush
404 P.2d 836 (Wyoming Supreme Court, 1965)
Martens v. Martens
364 P.2d 995 (Wyoming Supreme Court, 1961)
Sarah S. Wagner v. Charles A. Wagner
293 F.2d 533 (D.C. Circuit, 1961)
Travis v. Estate of Travis
324 P.2d 508 (Wyoming Supreme Court, 1959)
Dexter v. Taylor
107 N.E.2d 402 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 1951)
Dexter v. Taylor
58 Ohio Law. Abs. 532 (Butler County Court of Common Pleas, 1950)
Campbell v. Prater
191 P.2d 160 (Wyoming Supreme Court, 1948)
Scholl v. Scholl
152 F.2d 672 (D.C. Circuit, 1945)
Hopping v. Hopping
10 N.W.2d 87 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1943)
Ades v. Ades
45 N.E.2d 416 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 1942)
McLean v. McLean
290 N.W. 913 (North Dakota Supreme Court, 1940)
Parker v. Parker
56 N.E.2d 527 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 1938)
Campbell v. Campbell
58 P.2d 1133 (Supreme Court of Kansas, 1936)
Reed v. Reed
167 N.E. 684 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1929)
Dobler as Trustee v. Clark
292 P. 246 (Wyoming Supreme Court, 1925)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
215 P. 485, 30 Wyo. 1, 29 A.L.R. 1371, 1923 Wyo. LEXIS 30, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/closson-v-closson-wyo-1923.