Rogers v. Rogers

89 N.E. 901, 46 Ind. App. 506, 1909 Ind. App. LEXIS 253
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedNovember 18, 1909
DocketNo. 6,396
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 89 N.E. 901 (Rogers v. Rogers) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Rogers v. Rogers, 89 N.E. 901, 46 Ind. App. 506, 1909 Ind. App. LEXIS 253 (Ind. Ct. App. 1909).

Opinions

Watson, J.

This action was brought by appellant on a complaint in three paragraphs, in the third of which the statute of the State of Ohio was pleaded as to granting divorces in said state. Judgment was demanded against appellee for past-due sums awarded to appellant as alimony by the judgment of the common pleas court of Trumbull county, Ohio, which court had jurisdiction of the subject-matter and the parties to the action therein. Appellant brought a suit against appellee in said court for divorce, which was granted, and she was awarded the custody of their infant child, and, for the support of herself and child, the court rendered judgment against appellee as follows:

“The sum of $4 a week to be by him paid in monthly instalments, commencing on February 23, 1902, and continuing thereafter to become due and payable in the sum of $4 per week at the end of each month, until -otherwise ordered by the court.”

Appellant alleged that the sum of $832 was due on said judgment so rendered, that said judgment was in full force, unreversed, unmodified, unappealed from and unpaid, and prayed for a judgment of $1,000 on said past-due instalments. Appellee appeared and filed his motion to dismiss the action for the following reasons: “(1) The court has no jurisdiction over the subject-matter; (2) the court has [508]*508no jurisdiction, power or authority to render judgment in the cause of action sued on; (3) the court has no jurisdiction to enforce the decree sued on; (5) the court has no jurisdiction, power or authority to render judgment or enforce the order of the court sued on herein.”

The court, being sufficiently advised, sustained said motion and dismissed appellant’s complaint, to which she excepted, and from the judgment rendered upon said motion she prosecutes her appeal to this court, and assigns as error the sustaining of said motion. Appellee has filed cross-errors, challenging the sufficiency of each paragraph of the complaint.

1. The statute of Ohio (§9233 Laning’s R. S. 1905) provides as follows: “When a divorce is granted by reason of the aggression of the husband, the wife shall, by force of the judgment of divorce, # * * be allowed such alimony out of her husband’s real and personal property as the court deems reasonable, having due regard to the property which came to him by marriage, and the value of his real and personal estate at the time of the divorce, which alimony may be allowed to her in real or personal property, or both or by decreeing to her such sum of money, payable either in gross or instalments, as the court deems just and equitable.”

The question here involved is whether the judgment rendered by the common pleas court of Ohio is such as requires a sister state to give to it “full faith and credit.” By the statutes of Ohio, the alimony awarded to the wife is designated as a judgment (§9231 Laning’s R. S. 1905). It is enacted by §9233, supra,, that the court shall on petition for alimony give judgment in favor of the wife for such alimony out of her husband’s real and personal property as is just and equitable, which may be allowed to her in real or personal property, or both, or in money payable either in gross or in instalments.

The money judgment herein provided for has the same [509]*509force and effect as any other judgment for the payment of money. It is said by the Supreme Court of the United States, in the case of Barber v. Barber (1858), 21 How. 582, 595, 16 L. Ed. 226, that when the court, having jurisdiction of the subject-matter and of the parties, allows the wife from her husband’s means, by way of alimony, suitable maintenance and support, it becomes a judicial debt of record against the husband, and “is as much a debt of record, until the decree has been recalled, as any other judgment for money is.”

2. The statutes of Indiana provide that when alimony is allowed it shall be in gross; and if the court allows otherwise the judgment is not enforceable, for the reason that such a judgment is not as authorized by statute. §1088 Burns 1908, §1047 R. S. 1881. See Marsh v. Marsh (1904), 162 Ind. 210.

But the statutes of Ohio provide that the court shall allow such alimony out of the husband’s property, or decree to the wife such sum of money, payable either in gross or in instalments, as the court deems just. §9233, supra.

3. Under our statutes, the judgment for alimony is collectible by execution. Frakes v. Brown (1830), 2 Blackf. 295; Becknell v. Becknell (1887), 110 Ind. 42; Marsh v. Marsh, supra.

In Ohio, also, a judgment for alimony is collectible by execution. Piatt v. Piatt (1839), 9 Ohio *37; Conrad v. Everich (1893), 50 Ohio St. 476, 35 N. E. 58, 40 Am. St. 679; Coffman v. Finney (1901), 65 Ohio St. 61, 61 N. E. 155, 55 L. R. A. 794; Peeke v. Fitzpatrick (1906), 74 Ohio St. 396, 78 N. E. 519; Lemert v. Lemert (1905), 72 Ohio St. 364, 74 N. E. 194, 100 Am. St. 621.

4. The judgment of the common pleas court of Ohio, awarding alimony in gross, in instalments, or otherwise, in any event is appealable (§9240 Laning’s R. S. 1905). Conrad v. Everich, supra.

As a general rule, a judgment is deemed final, for the [510]*510piirpose of basing an action thereon, when it is “a definite and personal judgment for the payment of money, final in its character and not merely interlocutory, remaining unsatisfied, and capable of immediate enforcement.” 23 Cyc. 1503.

The judgment or decree sued on in this case was final, to the extent that either party could have prosecuted an appeal therefrom, and therefore it was not» interlocutory. It was enforceable against the appellee by execution issued by the Ohio court which rendered the decree.

1. The Constitution of the United States • (article 4, §1) provides that “full faith and credit” shall be given in each state to the judicial proceedings of every other state. A decree for divorce and alimony obtained in one state by a court having jurisdiction of the subject-matter and of the parties is res judicata and binding on them in an action on the judgment so rendered in another state, whether upon a gross sum or on instalments past due. Barber v. Barber, supra; Knapp v. Knapp (1893), 59 Fed. 641; Brisbane v. Dobson (1892), 50 Mo. App. 170; Harrison v. Harrison (1852), 20 Ala. 629, 56 Am. Dec. 227; Arrington v. Arrington (1900), 127 N. C. 190, 37 S. E. 212, 52 L. R. A. 201, 80 Am. St. 791; Wagner v. Wagner (1904), 26 R. I. 27, 57 Atl. 1058, 65 L. R. A. 816; Trowbridge v. Spinning (1900), 23 Wash. 48, 62 Pac. 125, 54 L. R. A. 204, 83 Am. St. 806.

Judgments, therefore, of courts having jurisdiction of the subject-matter and of the parties are conclusive on the merits in all other states of the Union, so long as they are unrever'sed, unappealed from or set aside by a court having power so to do. American Mut. Life Ins. Co. v. Mason (1902), 159 Ind. 15; Dow v. Blake (1893), 148 Ill. 76, 35 N. E. 761, 39 Am. St. 156.

In 2 Bishop, Mar., Div. and Sep.

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Bluebook (online)
89 N.E. 901, 46 Ind. App. 506, 1909 Ind. App. LEXIS 253, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rogers-v-rogers-indctapp-1909.