Neal v. Neal

85 N.E.2d 147, 53 Ohio Law. Abs. 329
CourtSummit County Court of Common Pleas
DecidedJanuary 27, 1949
DocketNo. 155970
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 85 N.E.2d 147 (Neal v. Neal) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Summit County Court of Common Pleas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Neal v. Neal, 85 N.E.2d 147, 53 Ohio Law. Abs. 329 (Ohio Super. Ct. 1949).

Opinion

OPINION

'By EMMONS, J.:

This cause came on to be heard upon the issues raised by the plaintiff’s petition for divorce and alimony, the answer of the defendant, and the reply to the answer, and upon trial being duly had the Court finds, after a consideration of all the evidence, that on August the 10th, 1945, the defendant herein filed a divorce action at Bryan, Ohio, against this plaintiff, and that on October the 25th, 1945, the Court of Common Pleas refused the plaintiff in that case, Stanley Neal, a divorce.

Thereafter, on October 30th, 1945, the plaintiff herein filed an action for alimony only in Williams County, Ohio, and on February 25th, 1946, a judgment awarding permanent alimony to the plaintiff was entered in the Common Pleas Court of Williams County, Ohio, and that this matter was. appealed by the defendant, and on July the 28th, 1946, the Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment of the Common Pleas Court awarding permanent alimony to the plaintiff in the sum of Sixty Dollars per month and one-half of the money realized from the sale of their furniture.

The Court further finds that on May 3, 1946, the plaintiff herein filed this divorce action in Summit County, Ohio; that service by publication was had upon the defendant, who at that time was in Nevada, and that service by publication was [331]*331■completed on June the 14th, 1946. Thereafter the defendant came back to Ohio and personal service was had upon him October the 15 dh, 1946.

That on or about March the 1st, 1946, the defendant herein went west, and later arrived in Reno, Nevada, and stayed there until July 10th, 1946, and while there he filed his petitiofi lor divorce against this plaintiff in Washoe County, Nevada, •on or about May the 18th, 1946, getting service by publication upon this plaintiff, and on July 3rd, 1946, was granted a divorce against this plaintiff at Reno, Nevada.

The first question for the Court’s consideration is whether the Court granting the divorce in Reno, Nevada, had jurisdiction over the subject matter so as to make that divorce valid.

To determine this question it is necessary to conclude what the status of the defendant was at the time he procured the divorce in Nevada.

Shortly after the defendant was denied his divorce on his petition he told his wife that he would get a divorce from her if he had to go to Reno to get it, and thereafter he did go to Reno and on or about May 18th, 1946, filed a divorce action against her and had her served by publication.

Under the Federal Constitution, the State of Ohio gives lull faith and credit to the judgments or decrees rendered by courts of a foreign state, and therefore such a decree cannot be impeached by this Court unless, however, this Court finds that the Nevada court did not have jurisdiction ■over the subject matter, and therefore the question of jurisdiction is one that is always open to inquiry by the courts of this state, and if the Court concludes that the foreign court had no jurisdiction to render the divorce then that proceedings becomes void ab initio, being a nullity the full faith and ■credit clause of the constitution does not apply.

It is well established in Ohio that in order for the court of another state to acquire such jurisdiction of the subject matter in divorce proceedings as to entitle a judgment rendered therein to recognition by the courts of Ohio it is essential that either or both parties have a bona fide domiciliary residence in such state.

As a general rule, the residence of a person in another state for the sole purpose of conferring jurisdiction in a divorce proceedings will not be recognized as valid. (See Jones v. Jones, 17 N. P. N. S., page 456.)

[332]*332[331]*331It has been held that where parties are residents of this ■state and one of them removes to and resides in another state [332]*332for the sole purpose of maintaining an action against the other for divorce, such residence, not being bona fide, is not. sufficient to confer jurisdiction upon the courts of such foreign states and will be disregarded by the Ohio courts.

The facts reveal that shortly after the defendant herein told his wife that he would get a divorce if he had to go to-Reno, he did leave for Reno where he filed his divorce action against this plaintiff on May the 18th, 1946.

The circumstances that existed at the time he left were-ably presented by plaintiff’s counsel in his brief, a part of which facts are as follows:

1. Neal, the defendant, left an agent to carry on his business while- he was away, and this agent was a lady that lived across the street and her authority was only to make collections of premiums.

2. Neal got an Ohio driver’s license in March, 1946, just, before he left the state.

3. By his own testimony the defendant was gone from the state less than four months.

4. He did not take his minor son with him when he left-Ohio although his son was living with him at that time.

5. He made temporary arrangements for his son’s room, food, clothes while he was away by informing the various business people to allow his son to charge various items and that he would take care of them.

6. The defendant kept his own hotel room, which was in the Allen Hotel, Montpelier, Ohio.

7. He told his wife that he would get a divorce if he had to go to Reno to get it.

8. He did not take the woman with whom he had been associating along with him to Nevada.

9. He left pictures of his father and mother, family heirlooms, clothing, fishing tackle, safe, bedding, as well as business files in his hotel room.

10. A very few days after he received his so-called divorce decree he returned to Ohio, even flying back to Chicago from Reno.

11. He was back in Ohio at one time while his case was pending in Nevada.

12. He wrote two cards to his son, each time telling him to get in touch with the Snyder woman, whom he married on July 31, 1946.

13. He kept his membership in clubs to which he belonged and did not demit.

14. The records of his own company show that they knew of no change in his job, only an absence, as was evidenced [333]*333by a letter written by R. F. Hoard, Agency Secretary of The Massachusetts Protective Association, of which company the defendant was an insurance agent. The letter is as follows:

“June 25, 1946.

Mrs. Stanley M. Neal,

389 Fountain Street,

Akron 6, Ohio.

Dear Mrs. Neal:

Thank you for your letter of June 21 just received. You have asked about your husband, Stanley M. Neal — Mr. Neal is still under contract representing us in Ohio with bead-quarters at Montpelier. I think he was out of his territory between collection periods and it seems to me 1 remember some one saying that he took a trip to Nevada. Mr. Neal’s present address is Allen Hotel, Montpelier, Ohio. Trusting the above gives you the information desired, 1 am,

Very truly yours,

R. F. Hoard,

Agency Secretary.”

15. The defendant, Neal, did not wind up his business affairs in Montpelier nor did he break up his home.

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Related

Linck v. Linck
288 N.E.2d 347 (Scioto County Court of Common Pleas, 1972)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
85 N.E.2d 147, 53 Ohio Law. Abs. 329, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/neal-v-neal-ohctcomplsummit-1949.