Roberts v. Roberts

161 N.W. 148, 135 Minn. 397, 1917 Minn. LEXIS 813
Supreme Court of Minnesota·Decided January 26, 1917·No. Nos. 20,000—(145)·Published·Cited by 13 cases

Opinion

Bunn, J.

This is a divorce action. The summons was served by publication, defendant did not appear, the case was tried and judgment of divorce entered February 10, 1915. There had been an order sequestrating certain personal property of defendant, and the judgment provided that the plaintiff recover of defendant the sequestration expenses, the costs of the action, $25 for her necessary expenses in a former action for divorce brought against her by defendant, and attorneys’ fees in the sum of $150, and that defendant pay to plaintiff alimony at the rate of $35 per month beginning with February, 1915. The sheriff was directed to sell the articles of personal property taken in the sequestration proceedings, and pay from the proceeds the expenses of such proceedings, costs of the action, the $150 attorneys’ fee, and the $25, expense incurred in the prior action.

In September, 1915, defendant’s father died. On affidavits alleging that defendant, as one of the heirs of his father, was the owner of an undivided one-sixth interest in certain lands in Mower county, and subject to a life estate in his mother, the owner of a qne-fourth interest in an improved farm of 240 acres in that county, plaintiff in April, 1916, applied to the court for an order: (1) Bequiring defendant to pay the alimony accrued under the judgment; (2) increasing the alimony to $50 per month, payable as long as plaintiff should live; (3) ordering that the accrued alimony and each instalment thereof be made a specific lien upon defendant’s interest in the lands mentioned; (4) ordering that the monthly alimony for the future be made a specific lien upon defendant’s interest in said land; (5) fixing the amount of plaintiff’s attorneys’ fees and directing payment thereof by defendant. An order to show cause why the relief asked should not be granted was issued. According to the return of the sheriff of Hennepin county this order to show cause, the notice of motion and affidavits, as well as the summons [399] and complaint, findings, judgment and bill of costs were served personally upon defendant at Minneapolis on April 14, 1916. Defendant appeared “specially” by attorneys other than his present counsel, objecting to the jurisdiction of the court to grant any of the relief asked, on two grounds: (1) That the court never acquired jurisdiction in the action of the person of defendant, the sumSmons having been served only by publication; (3J that the judgment for alimony or attorneys’ fees is a jtidgment in personam-and therefore void under the substituted service made. The court, on May 12, 1916, made its order, reciting this special appearance of defendant, and ordering that defendant forthwith pay to plaintiff the sum of $535 accrued alimony, and that this amount and the monthly payments of alimony thereafter, at the rate of $35 per month, be made a specific lien upon defendant’s interest in the lands inherited from his father since the judgment was entered. Defendant was also directed to pay plaintiff’s attorneys $75 as attorneys’ fees, but the other relief asked was denied. The present appeal is by defendant from this order.

1. An important and interesting question presented by the appeal is whether the court had jurisdiction to render a personal judgment for alimony. Defendant was a resident of the state at the time the suit was begun. The affidavits for the order of publication showed that defendant was secreting himself within the state, that his whereabouts were unknown and could not be ascertained, and that personal service could not well be made. The order for service by publication found these facts true. Of course there can be no doubt that the court acquired jurisdiction of the res, the marriage status, but had it jurisdiction, on this substituted service, to render a personal judgment for alimony?

It is well settled that a personal judgment or decree for alimony rendered in a divorce case against a nonresident, where the only service is by publication, is void everywhere. Stallings v. Stallings, 127 Ga. 464, 56 S. E. 469, 9 L.R.A. (N.S.) 593; Thurston v. Thurston, 58 Minn. 279, 59 N. W. 1017. The rule is the same in any action in personam where the defendant is a nonresident, the service is by publication, and no property within the state is seized. Plummer v. Hatton, 51 Minn. 181, 53 N. W. 460; 2 Dunnell, Minn. Dig. § 7836.

It is equally clear that an attempted service by publication upon a [400] resident defendant who is personally present within the state and can be found therein confers no jurisdiction to render a personal judgment, because not due process of law. Bardwell v. Collins, 44 Minn. 97, 46 N. W. 315, 9 L.R.A. 152, 20 Am. St. 547; Smith v. Hurd, 50 Minn. 503, 52 N. W. 922, 36 Am. St. 661; McNamara v. Casserly, 61 Minn. 335, 63 N. W. 880.

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Roberts v. Roberts, 161 N.W. 148, 135 Minn. 397, 1917 Minn. LEXIS 813 (Mich. 1917).

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