Fulwider v. Fulwider

290 N.E.2d 264, 8 Ill. App. 3d 581, 1972 Ill. App. LEXIS 2074
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedNovember 29, 1972
Docket11772
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 290 N.E.2d 264 (Fulwider v. Fulwider) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fulwider v. Fulwider, 290 N.E.2d 264, 8 Ill. App. 3d 581, 1972 Ill. App. LEXIS 2074 (Ill. Ct. App. 1972).

Opinion

Mr. JUSTICE SMITH

delivered the opinion of the court:

The plaintiff-wife appeals from an order of the circuit court of Coles County dismissing her petition for alimony and maintenance filed pursuant to Ill. Rev. Stat. 1969, ch. 40, par. 19. The court’s final judgment in bar was based on the proposition that a divorce decree issued in the State of Nevada disposed of the issue of alimony and maintenance as a matter of law and under the U.S. Const., art. IV, sec. 1, the Coles County circuit court was required to give full faith and credit to that decree. On this conclusion, the trial judge entered a final judgment order which dismissed the plaintiff’s petition with prejudice and in bar of action and entered a judgment that the defendant shall recover his costs and go hence without day. There was no factual dispute and the order entered was in strict conformity with the petition of the defendant to dismiss the plaintiffs complaint and enter a judgment in bar.

The defendant now says that we do not have jurisdiction to consider this appeal for the reason that the notice of appeal was filed too late. The order above mentioned was entered on March 25, 1971. On April 22, the plaintiff filed a motion for rehearing and to vacate the final judgment order dismissing the petition to establish alimony and maintenance. On May 21, the defendant filed a motion to strike stating that the March 25 order was final and that the petition to reconsider and vacate was not within the scope of post-judgment proceedings as set forth in Ill. Rev. Stat. 1969, ch. 110, par. 68.3. The court denied the motion to vacate and reaffirmed its order entered on March 25. Notice of appeal was given on July 12 and within 30 days of the order denying the motion to vacate.

The defendant calls attention to Supreme Court Rule 303 (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1969, ch. 110A, par. 303), that the notice of appeal must be filed with the clerk of the circuit court within 30 days after the entry of the final judgment appealed from, or if a timely post-trial motion directed against the judgment is filed, whether in a jury or a non-jury case, within 30 days after the entry of the order disposing of the motion. He then argues that a motion to vacate does not qualify as a post-trial motion in that this matter was not a “case tried without a jury” within the meaning of Ill. Rev. Stat. 1969, ch. 110, par. 68.3. That paragraph, among other things, provides: “In all cases tried without a jury, any party may, within 30 days after the entry of the decree or judgment' * * * file a motion for a rehearing, or a retrial, or modification of the decree or judgment or to vacate the decree or judgment or for other relief * * *.” The defendant’s position apparently is that this was not a “trial” or that the motion alleging a “misapprehension” of the law by the trial court in his original determination is insufficient grounds for the court to reconsider. First of all, if there has been a misapprehension of the law in the trial court, the place to correct that misapprehension is in that court without the necessity for an appeal. Secondly, it strikes us as a rather narrow interpretation of the statute to restrict the word “trial” as inapplicable to a motion to dismiss where there are no disputed facts and where there is a previous judgment alleged to be a bar to the suit and a judgment in bar is in fact entered. To hold that the proceeding here was not a “trial” when it results in a judgment in bar of an action permissible under an Illinois statute is, we think, to ignore Supreme Court Rule 273 which provides: “Unless the order of dismissal of a statute of this state otherwise specifies, an involuntary dismissal of an action, other than a dismissal for lack of jurisdiction, for improper venue, or for failure to join an indispensable party, operates as an adjudication upon the merits”. (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1969, ch. 110A, par. 273.) For us to hold that the procedure here followed is not an adjudication upon the merits or that an adjudication on the merits is not a trial is an unwarranted distortion of unambiguous language. The notice of appeal was timely filed.

The Nevada decree as to the divorce is not attacked in this proceeding. The order entered in Nevada was:

“IT IS, THEREFORE, ORDERED, ADJUDGED AND DECREED that the plaintiff, HARRY FULWIDER, be, and he hereby is, granted a decree of divorce from the defendant, THELMA I. FULWIDER, which said decree is final and absolute in form, force and effect, and that the bonds of matrimony now and heretofore existing between the plaintiff and the defendant be, and the same hereby are, dissolved and the parties freed from the obligations thereof and restored to the status of unmarried persons.”

Under the Nevada law, this decree which was entered on July 14, 1970, became final and not subject to modification after six months from its date. The plaintiff’s petition here in Illinois was filed December 15 and thus within the six-months statutory limitations imposed by the State of Nevada for a modification of that decree and the defendant was personally served with a summons in Illinois on December 16. There were no children bom to this marrage and the Nevada decree found that there was no community property in Nevada to be adjudicated. Neither the complaint in Nevada nor its decree specifically referred to any property or property rights elsewhere located.

The Appellate Court of the Fifth District in Kresteff v. Kresteff, 79 Ill.App.2d 170, 223 N.E.2d 720, recognizes the case of Sweeney v. Sweeney, 42 Nev. 431, 179 P. 638, which holds that a petition or decree in Nevada which contains neither a provision for alimony nor a reservation in that jurisdiction for later action pertaining to alimony is equivalent in Nevada to a decree denying alimony and support.

There are two fundamental differences between the situation in Kresteff and the suit at bar. The plaintiff has never been in the State of Nevada nor filed an appearance or requested any relief in any court in that state. Secondly, the six-month period after which the Nevada divorce would become final under its law had not yet elapsed. In Kresteff the plaintiff entered her appearance, filed an answer and moved for the allowance of expenses to enable her to travel to Nevada and defend the divorce suit in person and that order was entered by the Nevada court. There, the Nevada court had jurisdiction over the person of the defendant. Here, it did not. There, the Nevada decree was appropriately final in Nevada before any action was instituted in Illinois. Here, a suit under our statute was filed in Illinois and the defendant-husband personally served in Illinois. Here, the property involved is in Illinois. Here, the defendant was personally served with summons while in Coles County. Under such circumstances, we are confronted with the question of whether or not Illinois follows the “divisible divorce” theory, and whether or not under the circumstances here stated, Illinois is required to give full faith and credit to the Nevada decree under the U.S. Constitution.

The public policy of this State as stated in Ill.Rev. Stat. 1969, ch. 40, par.

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Bluebook (online)
290 N.E.2d 264, 8 Ill. App. 3d 581, 1972 Ill. App. LEXIS 2074, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fulwider-v-fulwider-illappct-1972.