Mellen v. Mellen

10 Abb. N. Cas. 329
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 15, 1882
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 10 Abb. N. Cas. 329 (Mellen v. Mellen) 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
Mellen v. Mellen, 10 Abb. N. Cas. 329 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1882).

Opinion

Rumsey, J.

The facts in this case which were in dispute have been found by a jury, and as so found they must be taken as true.

In addition to those facts, it appears by necessary inference from them that the defendant ceased to be a resident of Michigan in October, 1875, and that he was a resident of this State in September, 1877, at the time of his marriage with the plaintiff. It was admitted on the trial, and at the argument of the motion for judgment. that the defendant in fact came to reside in. [330]*330Ontario county shortly after October, 1875, and in time to qualify himself for voting in this State in November, 1876. It was also admitted that the statutes of Michigan require that the party exhibiting his bill of complaint in an action for divorce shall have been a resident of that State for one year immediately preceding the time of exhibiting such bill, and that the laws of that State under which the defendant’s divorce was granted, authorize the court of chancery to grant an absolute divorce when the wife shall desert the husband for a term of two years. It was for such desertion that defendant procured his divorce.

The only question is whether that divorce was valid in this State.

In 1857, Jonathan C. Mellen and Augusta E. Baker were married. They lived together as man and wife in Ontario county, N. Y., until October 31, 1871, when they separated. Augusta continued to live in New York State, and has never since been out of it, and was never in the State of Michigan. In June, 1874, defendant became a resident of the State of Michigan, and lived there until October, 1875, in all about sixteen months. In June, 1875, after he had been in that State a year, he commenced an action in the circuit court of Branch county, Michigan, to obtain a decree of divorce from Augusta, upon the ground that said Augusta had deserted him for more than two years.

Mrs. Augusta Mellen being in New York State, service was had upon her as a non-resident, under the practice of Michigan. She had no actual notice of the pendency of the action against her ; nor did she ever appear in it. A decree of divorce was granted to Mellen in that action on May 8, 1876, at which time neither he nor his wife were residents of Michigan.

The jury find as a fact that Mrs. Augusta Mellen did not desert the defendant for more than two years before this divorce was obtained.

[331]*331The counsel for the defendant insists that when Mellen went to Michigan and obtained a domicil, his wife became also a domiciled resident of Michigan, because the domicil of the husband is prima facie that of the wife, and any change of the domicil of the husband in contemplation of law carries with it the domicil of the wife. I may remark here that the finding of the jury does not necessarily say that the defendant was ever domiciled in Michigan. A man does not acquire a domicil in any place simply by residing there. He must also have the intention of making it his permanent home (Abbotts Law Die., tit. “Domicil ”). The facts found in this case by no means show any such intention on the part of Mellen, but rather negative it. I do not think, however, that it is very material in this case, in view of the decisions of our courts, whether Mellen was domiciled in Michigan for the sixteen months of his residence there, or not. It is quite true that prima facie the domicil of the wife is the same as that of the husband. But the law recognizes exceptions to this rule, the foundation of which is the necessity for her protection, and the fact that their interests have ceased to be identical (Hunt v. Hunt, 72 N. Y. 217; 2 Bish. on Mar. and Div. §§ 124-128). In this case the joint domicil of Mellen and his wife Augusta was in the State of New York. They were living apart, not by her fault, as the jury found.

When the husband began his action to dissolve the marriage contract, the theoretic identity of person and interest ceased to exist, and the legal fiction of the one domicil no longer operated. The rights of the parties and the jurisdiction of the court must then stand upon the actual existing fact as it was. This, I think, is the necessary result of the cases (2 Bishop on Mar. & Div. §§ 124-127; 3 Am. Law Reg. 221, 222; Rogers on Domicil, 11 Cent. L. J. 421; Hunt v. Hunt, supra; [332]*332Elder v. Reel, 1 Am. R. 414; Cox v. Cox, 2 Am. R. 415; 19 Ohio St. 502; Kinnier v. Kinnier, 45 N. Y. 535, 544, per Church, Ch. J.; People v. Dowell, 12 Am. R. 260-272). The rule I suggest is the one acted upon in McGiffert v. McGiffert (31 Barb. 69); Holmes v. Holmes (57 Barb. 305; S. C., 4 Lans. 388), and Shaw v. Shaw (98 Mass. 158). In the two cases first cited the facts were' quite- like the case at bar, and if the domicil of the wife was changed by the removal of the husband, and followed such removal, the decision in those cases must have been different from what it was.

The English law on this subject appears to be the same as ours (Briggs v. Briggs, L. R. 5 P. D. 163; Le Sucur v. Le Secur, L. R. 1 P. D. 139). The case of Hunt v. Hunt (supra) is not in conflict. In that case the fact was, that the wife was, when the divorce was obtained against her, an actual domiciled citizen of the State of Louisiana, and only temporarily absent therefrom. The proceedings were such as the Louisiana law required to enable the courts of that State to get jurisdiction of its absent citizens. The divorce then obtained was sustained here, because both parties were actually citizens of Louisiana and subject to her laws (People v. Baker, 76 N. Y. 78, 83). In Harvey v. Farnie (L. R. 5 P. D. 153; S. C., on appeal, L. R. 6 P. D. 35; 23 Alb. L. J.), both parties were actually domiciled in Scotland when the courts of that country granted the divorce which was held valid.

Mrs. Augusta Mellen was not then within the jurisdiction of the Michigan court when the action was commenced against her for a divorce. There was no service on her, nor was she in any way subject to the jurisdiction of that court. She had not, as the jury found, deserted her husband. If she had, there could still have been no cause of action for that reason in Michigan until the desertion had continued for two years. The case is precisely within the cases of McGiffert v. [333]*333McGiffert (31 Barb. 69), and Vischer v. Vischer (12 Id. 640). These are both special term cases, it is true, bub they have been frequently followed in this State (Hoffman v. Hoffman, 55 Barb. 269; Holmes v. Holmes, 4 Lans. 388; Moe v. Moe, 2 Supm. Ct. [T. & C.] 647), and have finally and decisively been adopted by the court of appeals (People v. Baker, 76 N. Y. 78, 82, 83). The rule of these cases compels me to hold that the Michigan divorce was not valid or operative as against Mrs. Augusta Mellen, and that in this State it is of no force. It follows that the marriage with the plaintiff was void, and judgment to that effect must be entered.

Note on Domicil fob Pubpose op Divobce.

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Bluebook (online)
10 Abb. N. Cas. 329, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mellen-v-mellen-nysupct-1882.