Marriage of Mahoney v. Mahoney

433 N.W.2d 115, 1988 Minn. App. LEXIS 1224, 1988 WL 130864
CourtCourt of Appeals of Minnesota
DecidedDecember 13, 1988
DocketC3-88-396, C8-88-1348
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 433 N.W.2d 115 (Marriage of Mahoney v. Mahoney) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Marriage of Mahoney v. Mahoney, 433 N.W.2d 115, 1988 Minn. App. LEXIS 1224, 1988 WL 130864 (Mich. Ct. App. 1988).

Opinion

OPINION

FOLEY, Judge.

On February 19, 1988, appellant Glenna Mahoney, a/k/a Glenna M. Mahoney, appealed from an order vacating prior orders of the trial court. Final judgment was then entered in the trial court, and Glenna filed a subsequent appeal from that judgment. These appeals have been consolidated for review. Since appeal has now been properly taken from the final judgment, the issue of appealability of the order is rendered moot. We affirm.

FACTS

Glenna and respondent Gene Mahoney, a/k/a Gene T. Mahoney, were married in Oakland, California on January 29, 1949. The couple lived in California until 1968, when they moved to Huntsville, Alabama. In May 1977, the couple separated. Gene remained in Alabama and Glenna moved to Minnesota.

In March 1987, the parties received a divorce “a mensa et thoro” from an Alabama court. Soon thereafter, Glenna began dissolution proceedings in Minnesota.

*117 . The trial court in Minnesota found that it had in rem jurisdiction over only the marital relationship of the parties and dissolved that relationship. Further, it found that it did not have personal jurisdiction over Gene and as a result could not render judgments with respect to spousal maintenance, property settlement, or attorney fees and costs as requested by Glenna.

ISSUES

1. Did the trial court err in finding that it did not have personal jurisdiction over Gene?

2. Should an Alabama divorce “a mensa et thoro” be given full faith and credit in Minnesota?

ANALYSIS

An appellate court is not bound by the ultimate legal conclusions of a trial court. See Durfee v. Rod Baxter Imports, Inc., 262 N.W.2d 349, 354 (Minn.1977). Accordingly, this court must determine whether the trial court correctly applied applicable law. See A.J. Chromy Construction Co. v. Commercial Mechanical Services, Inc., 260 N.W.2d 579, 582 (Minn.1977).

1. Glenna argues on appeal that the trial court’s finding that it did not have personal jurisdiction over Gene was erroneous.

The Minnesota Supreme Court has articulated the test which the state must satisfy in order to properly achieve personal jurisdiction over a nonresident defendant:

A Minnesota court must resolve two issues before it can exercise personal jurisdiction over a non-resident defendant. It must determine first whether the statutory standard of our long-arm statute, Minn.Stat. § 543.19 (1986) is satisfied, and, second, whether there exists such minimum contacts between the defendant and this state that the exercise of personal jurisdiction would not offend due process.

Sherburne County Social Services v. Kennedy, 426 N.W.2d 866, 867 (Minn.1988) (citations omitted).

The long-arm statute in Minnesota, Minn. Stat. § 543.19, (1986), provides in part:

As to a cause of action arising from any acts enumerated in this subdivision, a court of this state with jurisdiction of the subject matter may exercise personal jurisdiction over * * * any nonresident individual * * * in the same manner as if * * * the individual were a resident of this state. This section applies if * * * the * * * nonresident individual:
(a) Owns, uses, or possesses any real or personal property situated in this state, or
(b) Transacts any business within the state, or
(c) Commits any act in Minnesota causing injury or property damage, or
(d) Commits any act outside Minnesota causing injury or property damage in Minnesota, subject to the following exceptions * * *:

First, Glenna asserts that long arm jurisdiction should apply under Minn. Stat § 543.19 1(a). Glenna asserts that she and Gene owned a farm and sold it by contract for deed to her sister and nephew. Glenna maintains that Gene refused to execute a deed of conveyance to the purchasers. However, on March 18, 1987, Gene quit-claimed all of his “right, title, interest, claim and demand in and to that certain lot.” As such, we conclude that the quitclaim extinguished all of Gene’s rights to the Minnesota property, and Glenna’s claims are without merit.

Next, Glenna asserts that personal jurisdiction can lie under Minn.Stat. § 543.19 1(c) and (d) because Gene allegedly committed acts either inside or outside of Minnesota causing injury or property damage inside Minnesota. Specifically, she asserts that in September 1986, while in Minnesota, Gene threatened to dispossess Glenna’s relatives of the property. Glenna further asserts that Gene made fraudulent claims during the Alabama proceedings, and that she was under duress when she agreed to the settlement agreement. In her attorney’s words, “That the wife would consent to such a meager award itself proclaims the duress under which she must *118 have operated.” She asserts that the fraudulent threats themselves were acts both in and out of Minnesota that caused injury in Minnesota.

We consider all of Glenna’s complaints only allegations. This is not a tort action, it is a dissolution action, and there is no conclusive proof that Gene has committed a tort either in Minnesota or Alabama. The petition does not set forth a cause of action based on tort, and she did not plead fraud with the requisite amount of specificity.

Accordingly, there is no statutory authority here, and the long-arm statute would not extend to reach the nonresident Gene.

While we find no statutory authority here, keeping within the spirit of our decision in Stangel v. Rucker, 398 N.W.2d 602 (Minn.Ct.App.1986), pet. for rev. denied (Minn. March 13 and March 25, 1987), a constitutional analysis is appropriate. In Stangel, we held:

This statute was intended to extend long-arm jurisdiction to the maximum extent permissible by constitutional due process requirements. The permissibility of this attempted exercise of jurisdiction may therefore be tested by whether it would be constitutional.

Id. at 604 (citations omitted).

Constitutional Analysis

The United States Supreme Court has outlined the applicable constitutional standard of fundamental fairness, stating that

due process requires only that in order to subject a defendant to a judgment in personam, if he be not present within the territory of the forum, he have certain minimum contacts with it such that the maintenance of the suit does not offend “traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice.”

International Shoe Co. v. Washington,

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Bluebook (online)
433 N.W.2d 115, 1988 Minn. App. LEXIS 1224, 1988 WL 130864, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/marriage-of-mahoney-v-mahoney-minnctapp-1988.