Green v. Green

100 F.2d 241, 1938 U.S. App. LEXIS 4621
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedNovember 30, 1938
DocketNo. 8848
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 100 F.2d 241 (Green v. Green) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Green v. Green, 100 F.2d 241, 1938 U.S. App. LEXIS 4621 (9th Cir. 1938).

Opinion

DENMAN, Circuit Judge.

This is an appeal from a decree in a partition suit brought against appellee by appellant, formerly appellee’s wife. The decree denied the wife any relief and she appeals. The wife sought to partition a five acre tract of land, now producing oil, but which at the times pertinent to the decision was planted to oranges, and is hereinafter called the orange land. The bill alleged that the orange land had been theif [242]*242community property and that the decree divorcing them, on the ground of wilful desertion, and purporting to distribute to her a one-third common interest, was void, since, the wife claims, the court, under paragraph “two” of section 146 of the Civil Code of California, had jurisdiction only to award her a one-half interest. That section reads:

“§ 146. Disposition of community property and homestead on divorce.

* * ' * * * *

“Two. If the decree be rendered on any other ground than that of adultery or extreme cruelty, the community property shall be equally divided between the parties.

«£ * * * t-

Subsequent to the distribution, the oil had been discovered and developed by the lessee of a lease, still extant, given by both parties. The division of the royalties from the lease has been based on a.third ownership in the wife. The bill prayed she be adjudged the owner of a one-half interest in the orange land and for a determination of her interest in the lease. The husband’s interest has had a history not relevant to our decision. The prayer included an accounting from the husband on the theory of the wife’s half ownership in the orange land and interest in the proceeds from the lease.

The judgment roll in the divorce proceeding was in evidence below. Over the wife’s objection that, the decree being void, it could not be shown to have been made valid by her consent to its terms, evidence was introduced that she had so consented. Again, over her objection, evidence given in the divorce proceeding was introduced which tended to show that another piece of real estate, in Arcadia, California, distributed to her by the decree to be her separate property, was paid for in part by the community funds. Hence it was contended that the value of the Arcadia, land, plus the one-third interest in the orange land distributed to her may well have given her' one-half the value of the community property, thus satisfying the husband’s interpretation of the provision of paragraph “two” of section 146 of the Civil Code of California and as construed in Thomsen v. Thomsen, 31 Cal.App. 185, 189, 159 P. 1054, and in Green v. Green, Cal.App., 80 P.2d 513. The latter was another proceeding brought by the wife against the husband concerning the distribution of the divorce decree and is more fully considered infra.

The husband also contended that the decree’s award to the wife of $30 per month alimony should be considered • as in lieu of community property. In the absence from the decree of any valuation of the orange land, he contends that the alimony must be deemed to have been added to the one-third interest in the orange land, and the total to amount to half the value of the community property.

The overruling of.these objections to the evidence and other claimed errors are here assigned as error. It is unnecessary to consider them since the decision adverse to her on the principal question of law argued here requires an affirmance of the decree below for the husband. This question is whether, with the presumption in favor of the divorce decree, any error at all, much less any error of power or jurisdiction, is shown on its face.

The wife’s divorce complaint gave the court jurisdiction of the subject matter of the distribution of the community property. The husband had been made a party. In this collateral attack, the decree she procured has the usual presumption in its favor of the regularity of the acts of the judicial officer in the steps leading to the decision, and more specifically that the evidence supports the findings. This is true on a direct appeal on the judgment roll which contains the challenged divorce decree apportioning the property. Webster v. Webster, 216 Cal. 485, 489, 14 P.2d 522. A fortiori is it true on collateral attack. Also if there be an ambiguity in construction of the findings as supporting the decree, the ambiguity shall be resolved in favor of its validity.

There is no finding in the divorce decree of the value or relative value of the two tracts of land. There is no finding that the Arcadia land is not a part of the community property. There is a statement in the interlocutory decree as to the way the two pieces “ought to be awarded to” the parties. It states:

“ * * * that certain real property * * * [the Arcadia land] now standing of record in the name of plaintiff herein ought to be awarded to, and ordered, adjudged and decreed to be, the sole and separate property of the plaintiff herein; and that an undivided one-third interest in and [243]*243to * * * [the orange land] now standing of record in the name of defendant herein, ought to be awarded to, and ordered, adjudged and decreed to be, the sole and separate property of plaintiff herein.”

The adjudicatory portion of both the interlocutory and final decrees awards the two pieces in the manner the court had previously concluded they “ought” to be awarded, namely, that the Arcadia piece “be and it is hereby awarded to plaintiff herein as and for her sole and separate property” and “that an undivided one-third interest in and to' the community property of the plaintiff and defendant herein [the orange land] be and it is hereby awarded to the plaintiff herein, as and for her sole and separate property”. (Italics supplied.)

The decree distributed to her the Arcadia land. The court had no power to distribute it unless it was community property. With regard to any property not community, the limit of the court’s power is to decide that it is excluded from the community, and hence cannot be distributed by it. If, prior to the decree, the wife has separate property, her title is not derived from the decree of divorce. That decides no more than that the husband, as such, has no interest in it. If it were otherwise, after divorce, there would be a cloud on all a spouse’s separate property, not distributed to its owner by the decree. Hence, it is inferable, that because the court distributed the Arcadia land, the court had before it evidence showing this land had a community character which required its segregation and division between the spouses.

As stated, the husband also argues further that the presumption requires an inference that the evidence showed (Community funds had contributed to the purchase of the Arcadia land and that the husband had some interest in that piece, which, when added to the one-third interest in the orange land equalled one-half the value of the community property. If there be ambiguity in the decree’s language, it must be resolved in favor of the decree’s validity.

Besides the interest in the orange land distributed to the wife, the decree awarded “the sum of thirty dollars ($30) per month as permanent alimony and for the support and maintenance of the said minor child, Nathaniel Baldwin Green”.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
100 F.2d 241, 1938 U.S. App. LEXIS 4621, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/green-v-green-ca9-1938.