Husband M v. Wife M

321 A.2d 115
CourtSupreme Court of Delaware
DecidedApril 18, 1974
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 321 A.2d 115 (Husband M v. Wife M) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Delaware primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Husband M v. Wife M, 321 A.2d 115 (Del. 1974).

Opinion

HERRMANN, Chief Justice:

In each of these cases, after granting a divorce decree, the Superior Court made a property division in favor of the Wife under 13 Del.C. § 1531(a).1 In each case, the Husband appeals on the ground, inter alia,2 that § 1531(a) violates the Equal Protection Clauses of the Federal and State Constitutions.

I.

The Husbands contend that, in recent years, there has been a significant change in the scope of the Equal Protection Clause when applied to the sexes. They point to Reed v. Reed, 404 U.S. 71, 92 S.Ct. 251, 30 L.Ed.2d 225 (1971); Stanley v. Illinois, 405 U.S. 645, 92 S.Ct. 1208, 31 L.Ed.2d 551 (1972); and Frontiero v. Richardson, 411 U.S. 677, 93 S.Ct. 1764, 36 L.Ed.2d 583 (1973). Upon the foundation of those cases the Husbands build the argument that § 1531(a) discriminates against a husband solely on the basis of his sex in that the Statute permits a wife to share her husband’s property after divorce, but does not permit the husband similarly to share the wife’s property. They contend that, to the extent that § 1531(a) thus treats the property of a wife on a basis different from that of a husband, and affords a remedy to a wife without granting a similar remedy to a husband, the Statute violates the Equal Protection Clause.3 We must disagree.

The Husbands correctly point out that significant changes have evolved recently in this facet of constitutional law. Under the “new approach” to equal protection, there are two types of classifications, each measured by differing standards. See generally, Developments in the Law: Equal Protection, 82 Harv.L.Rev. 1065 (1969).

A legislatively created class, subject to the “traditional approach” to equal protection, must be sustained if the class itself is rationally. related to a legitimate governmental interest and is not “patently arbitrary”. As the United States Supreme Court recently phrased the “traditional” constitutional standard in Reed: “The Equal Protection Clause * * * denies] to States the power to legislate that different treatment be accorded to persons placed by a statute into different classes on the basis of criteria wholly unrelated to the objective of that statute. A classification ‘must be reasonable, not arbitrary, and must rest upon some ground of difference having a fair and substantial relation to the object of the legislation, so that all persons similarly circumstanced shall be treated alike.’ Royster Guano Co. v. Virginia, 253 U.S. 412, 415, 40 S.Ct. 560, 561, 64 L. Ed. 989 (1920).” Reed v. Reed, 404 U.S. at 75, 76, 92 S.Ct. at 253, 254. See also Eisenstadt v. Baird, 405 U.S. 438, 92 S.Ct. 1029, 31 L.Ed.2d 349 (1972).

However, the United States Supreme Court has recognized recently a sep[118]*118arate category of “inherently suspect” classifications which require closer judicial scrutiny. In this latter category falls race [see Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1, 87 S. Ct. 1817, 18 L.Ed.2d 1010 (1967); McLaughlin v. Florida, 379 U.S. 184, 85 S.Ct. 283, 13 L.Ed.2d 222 (1964); Bolling v. Sharpe, 347 U.S. 497, 74 S.Ct. 693, 98 L. Ed. 884 (1954)], alienage [see Graham v. Richardson, 403 U.S. 365, 91 S.Ct. 1848, 29 L.Ed.2d 534 (1971)], and national origin [see Oyama v. California, 332 U.S. 633, 68 S.Ct. 269, 92 L.Ed. 249 (1948); Korematsu v. United States, 323 U.S. 214, 65 S.Ct. 193, 89 L.Ed. 194 (1944); Hirabayashi v. United States, 320 U.S. 81, 63 S.Ct. 1375, 87 L.Ed. 1774 (1943)]. These “inherently suspect” classifications will be sustained only if justified by compelling state interests. In this respect, there exists a “very heavy burden of justification” subject to strict judicial review. Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. at 9, 87 S.Ct. at 1822.

Until the recent decision in Frontiero v. Richardson, 411 U.S. 677, 93 S.Ct. 1764, 36 L.Ed.2d 583 (1973), the United States Supreme Court viewed legislative classifications based upon sex in terms of the minimal scrutiny standards of “traditional” equal protection. See e. g. Reed v. Reed, 404 U.S. 71, 92 S.Ct. 251, 30 L.Ed.2d 225 (1971); Hoyt v. Florida, 368 U.S. 57, 82 S.Ct. 159, 7 L.Ed.2d 118 (1969); Goesaert v. Cleary, 335 U.S. 464, 69 S.Ct. 198, 93 L. Ed. 163 (1948); Radice v. New York, 264 U.S. 292, 44 S.Ct. 325, 68 L.Ed. 690 (1924). In Frontiero, however, it was declared that “classifications based upon sex, like classifications based upon race, alienage or national origin, are inherently suspect, and must therefore be subjected to strict judicial scrutiny.” Frontiero v. Richardson, 93 S.Ct. at 1771. But that pronouncement does not settle our problem here. The opinion so stating was not joined by a majority of the Court. As a plurality conclusion, it is enlightening, but not controlling.

Fortunately, however, it appears that we need not choose between the two standards for testing § 1531(a) against the Equal Protection Clause. We think the Statute meets both standards and withstands both tests.

II.

The Husbands argue that husbands and wives together constitute a class of individuals similarly situated and therefore any distinction between them “operates as an unjust and arbitrary discrimination”. In the Husbands’ assumption that husbands and wives are physically and economically similarly circumstanced lies the critical flaw of their argument.

In the vast majority of marital situations in Delaware, including those which come before our Courts, it is the husband who is the “bread winner”, upon whom the principal financial burdens fall; it is his income and his opportunity and ability to accumulate wealth upon which the economic stability of the household and the prosperity of the family chiefly depend. In contrast, as a general rule, the wife is the “homemaker”, responsible for managing the home and family and performing the domestic functions which enable the husband to act as the main provider of income and wealth. Generally speaking, each contributes in a characteristic and essential way to the development of the marital-property, much of which may become titled in the husband’s name alone. The financial realities of this time-honored,4

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