Le Gault v. Le Gault

9 Misc. 2d 82, 169 N.Y.S.2d 158, 1957 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 2200
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 12, 1957
StatusPublished

This text of 9 Misc. 2d 82 (Le Gault v. Le Gault) 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
Le Gault v. Le Gault, 9 Misc. 2d 82, 169 N.Y.S.2d 158, 1957 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 2200 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1957).

Opinion

Nicholas M. Pette, J.

The plaintiff and the defendant, Aime Le Gault, were married on December 23, 1933 in the city of Charleston, West Virginia, where both resided at that time. One child was born of this union, Robert, now past 21 years of age. The parties subsequently resided in Detroit, Michigan, and then in Anderson, Indiana, from which locality plaintiff’s husband joined the United States Merchant Marine in May, 1943. The plaintiff, however, stayed in Anderson, Indiana, until 1946 when she moved to New Bedford, Massachusetts, where her husband was born. In 1949 Mr. Le Gault was discharged from the Merchant Marine service in New York City which was his home port. He established a merchant marine pump and valve installation business in that city under the name of Le Gault & Company, which was changed in 1953 to Port Service Corporation. He set up his home in New York City while the plaintiff and their son continued to live in New Bedford, where he visited her from time to time.

On August 1, 1955 Mr. Le Gault obtained a decree in the Circuit Court of Russell County, Alabama, divorcing him from the plaintiff on the ground of her “ Voluntary abandonment from bed and board for more than one year.” On September 2, 1955 he married his codefendant, Virginia Schoerlin, in a church in Queens Village, County of Queens, New York.

In October, 1956 the plaintiff brought this action against her husband and the lady he married subsequent to his purported Alabama decree of divorce. She seeks judgment (1) declaring that decree to be invalid and of no force and effect because of lack of jurisdiction, (2) annulling the marriage between the defendants upon the ground that at the time it was solemnized, the male defendant had not been duly divorced from the plaintiff, and (3) granting the plaintiff a separation on the grounds of abandonment, nonsupport and adultery. The defendants’ answer is a general denial.

At the conclusion of the plaintiff’s case, the court reserved decision on the defendants’ motion to dismiss, whereupon the defendants rested and renewed their motions to dismiss, upon which decision was again reserved.

There can be no question of the power of this court to adjudicate marital status by way of a declaratory judgment [84]*84when the circumstances render it useful and necessary, and where it will serve some practical end in quieting or stabilizing an uncertain or disputed jural relation either as to present or prospective obligations. (Somberg v. Somberg, 263 N. Y. 1, 4-5; Lowe v. Lowe, 265 N. Y. 197; Baumann v. Baumann, 250 N. Y. 382; Long v. Long, 281 App. Div. 254, 256.) Since jurisdiction to pronounce a declaratory judgment lies in judicial discretion (Rules Civ. Prac., rule 212), the defendants raise the threshold objection that this court should not exercise such discretion because neither the plaintiff nor the defendant, Aime Le Gault, resided in this State up to and including May, 1943, nor at any time lived in this State as husband and wife and that at no time was the plaintiff a resident thereof.

Section 1165-a of the Civil Practice Act, which prescribes the conditions for the maintenance of an action for annulment or separation, provides in subdivision 3 that such actions may be maintained in this State: ‘£ Where the parties were married without the state, and either the plaintiff or the defendant is a resident of the state when the action is commenced, and has been a resident thereof for at least one year continuously at any time prior to the commencement of the action.” There is no question that the defendant, Aime Le Gault, was a resident of this State when the action was commenced and for at least one year continuously prior to such commencement. Certainly then, this court has jurisdiction with respect to the causes of action for a separation. Inasmuch as the primary fact to be proved in such an action is an existing marriage between the parties (Fischer v. Fischer, 254 N. Y. 463, 466; Cherubino v. Cherubino, 284 App. Div. 731, 732) and the defendant, Aime Le Gault, has denied plaintiff’s allegations that he and she still are husband and wife and that no decree of divorce has been obtained by him against her in any court of competent jurisdiction of this State or any other State, territory or dependency of the United States, or any foreign country, the question of the validity of the Alabama decree of divorce is necessarily presented, even if the causes for separation alone were before this court. (See Statter v. Statter, 2 N Y 2d 668.)

Denkman v. Denkman (172 Misc. 57, affd. 258 App. Div. 954), relied upon by the defendants, is distinguishable. In that case, the court found no basis for assuming jurisdiction of an action to declare the nullity of a Nevada divorce and that the parties still were husband and wife since neither resided in New York. While, as here, the parties to that action married outside the State, the defendant divorced the plaintiff in another State and the parties never had any marital domicile in New York, the [85]*85husband, unlike Mr. Le Gault, never lived, had an office, nor any property in New York and the defendant wife married another in New Jersey where they established their matrimonial domicile and continued to reside even as of the time of trial. In addition, folloAving the decree of divorce, the parties thereto entered into an agreement by which the plaintiff husband, in that case, secured a release of all his marital obligations to the defendant as well as of her half interest as a tenant with him by the entirety of certain real property and furniture. The agreement contained a recital to the effect that the parties recognized the validity of the decree of divorce and that both admitted “ that by virtue thereof they are now single persons and unmarried.” While this agreement could not have any effect on the validity of the divorce, it was presented as a strong, equitable reason why the court should not exercise jurisdiction to pronounce a declaratory judgment.

In the case at bar, we not only have a cause of action for a declaratory judgment but causes to annul the marriage between the defendants and for a judicial separation against the defendant, Aime Le Gault, who has been in business in New York continuously since 1947 and married his codefendant in that State on September 2, 1955, where both have resided and continue to reside as husband and wife. The late Mr. Justice Shiextag, who wrote the opinion in the Denkman case (supra) in Special Term, observed at page 60: “ The cases in which jurisdiction has been exercised are those where there was an existing New York res, such as a New York marriage, a New York marital domicile, a New York plaintiff, or Nbav York property owned by the plaintiff or where the defendant located in New Yorh owed a present financial obligation to the plaintiff for support or otherwise, or where there were children in this State who were wards of the State.” (Emphasis supplied.) Here the defendant’s obligations to the plaintiff were not extinguished, and if she prevails in this action she will be entitled to financial support from her husband and to share in his estate upon his death.

Engel v. Engel (275 App. Div. 14), likewise relied upon by the defendants, Avas an action solely to declare a foreign judgment of divorce to be invalid.

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Bluebook (online)
9 Misc. 2d 82, 169 N.Y.S.2d 158, 1957 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 2200, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/le-gault-v-le-gault-nysupct-1957.