White v. White

168 N.W. 704, 167 Wis. 615, 1918 Wisc. LEXIS 140
CourtWisconsin Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 8, 1918
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 168 N.W. 704 (White v. White) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wisconsin Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
White v. White, 168 N.W. 704, 167 Wis. 615, 1918 Wisc. LEXIS 140 (Wis. 1918).

Opinion

Eschweilee, J.

The parts of sec. 2374 of the Statutes of 1915, in force when this action was tried, material here, were as follows:

“1. When a judgment of divorce from the bonds of matrimony is granted in this state by a court, such judgment, so far as it determines the status of the parties, shall not be effective, except for the purposes of an appeal to review the same, until the expiration of one year from the date of the entry-of such judgment.
“2. So far as said judgment determines the status of the parties the court shall have power to vacate or modify the same, for sufficient cause shown, upon its own motion, or upon the application of either party to the action, at any time within one year from the entry of such judgment. . . , If the judgment shall be vacated it shall restore the parties to the marital relation that existed before the entry of such judgment.
“3. It shall be the duty of every judge, who shall enter a judgment of divorce, to inform the parties appearing in court that the judgment, so far as it affects the status of the parties, will not become effective until one year from the date when such judgment is entered.
“4. Such judgment, or any provision of the same, may be reviewed by an appeal taken within one year from the date when such judgment was entered. At the expiration of such year, such judgment shall become final and conclusive without further proceedings, unless an appeal be pending, or the court, for sufficient cause shown, upon its own motion, or upon the application of a party to the action, shall otherwise order before the expiration of said period.”

Until at least the year had gone by from the entry of the [621]*621judgment in this case on August 5, 1916, the parties hereto were still hound by the marital tie. Hiller v. Johnson, 162 Wis. 19, 154 N. W. 845. Until such year elapsed there was in existence no absolute judgment of divorce and, consequently, no absolute severance of the marital relationship.

By sub. 2, sec. 2330, of the Statutes it is declared unlawful for either party to such a divorce action to marry again during such year, and that any such attempted subsequent marriage shall be null and void. This declared public policy of the state through whose aid plaintiff sought to be released from his prior assumed obligations as the head and member of a family — that vital unit of society, — cannot be evaded or avoided by the mere crossing over into another state. State boundary lines are not fetters upon such public policy. Lanham v. Lanham, 136 Wis. 360, 117 N. W. 787; Severa v. Beranak, 138 Wis. 144, 119 N. W. 814; Kitzman v. Werner, ante, p. 308, 166 N. W. 789; Andrews v. Andrews, 188 U. S. 14, 23 Sup. Ct. 87.

It is evidently the declared purpose and policy of these statutes that until such year has passed the court still has absolute control, and up to the last moment, over the question whether the party seeking a divorce is entitled thereto, and that which has been granted conditionally by the court may he forfeited by the one to whom thus granted by his violation of the conditions attached thereto by law.

Such is the rule in Massachusetts, under a statute substantially the same as ours, announced in cases just like the one before us. Moors v. Moors, 121 Mass. 232; Cook v. Cook, 144 Mass. 163, 10 N. E. 749.

By sec. 2360 of the Statutes it is provided: “No decree for divorce shall be granted if it appears to the satisfaction of the court . . . that the plaintiff . . . has been guilty of adultery not condoned.” This provision rests upon the court as well during the year subsequent to the trial and entry of the judgment as at the trial, and is not lifted before there is an ab[622]*622solute perfected decree of divorce in full compliance with the letter and spirit of the statute. If it shall appear to the court at any time before the decree becomes absolute that the party seeking the divorce has been guilty of adultery — and under the conceded facts in this case there is no question but that plaintiff did commit adultery during the year in question,— then such adultery is well within the meaning of the term “for sufficient cause” found in sec. 2374, supra, for which the court shall have power to vacate or modify the judgment during the period of the year following the first entry of the judgment.

In divorce actions, in. which the state has such a substantial, well-recognized interest, a court is not confined in its disposition of them to the facts as they existed at the time of the commencement of the action merely, but it may take cognizance, under proper pleadings, of what is done by either or both parties thereto during the time it is pending before it. 2 Bishop, Marriage, Div. & Sep. § 567; 14 Cyc. 674; Moors v. Moors, 121 Mass. 232; von Bernuth v. von Bernuth, 76 N. J. Eq. 487, 74 Atl. 700; Blanc v. Blanc, 67 Hun, 384, 22 N. Y. Supp. 264; Armstrong v. Armstrong’s Adm’r, 27 Ind. 186; Smith v. Smith, 4 Paige Ch. 432.

It follows therefrom that the court below was in error by its denial of defendant’s application to set aside and vacate the judgment and should have entertained such application in the manner as hereinafter indicated.

Under the situation disclosed in this case the defendant should be permitted, under sec. 2687 of the Statutes, to make a supplementary answer and assert the adultery of plaintiff subsequent to the trial, either as an absolute bar to plaintiff’s prayer for divorce as by way of recrimination (Hiecke v. Hiecke, 163 Wis. 171, 157 N. W. 747; 9 Ruling Case Law, p. 387, sec. 180), or she may also allege it by way of counterclaim as grounds for a divorce in her favor, as she shall be advised. We deem such method by supplementary pleading the better practice, as it gives the defendant an opportunity [623]*623to elect which remedy she would choose and the plaintiff ample opportunity to be heard.

The fact that either method chosen may work a hardship to the one whom plaintiff may have induced to marry him in the meantime cannot alter the application of the law. Crouch v. Crouch, 30 Wis. 667; Everett v. Everett, 60 Wis. 200, 18 N, W. 637; Dallmann v. Dallmann, 159 Wis. 480, 149 N. W. 137.

The fact that plaintiff voluntarily paid and the defendant received the $10,000 specified in the stipulation and finding makes it unnecessary to decide in this case whether the court could compel, under the statute in question here, compliance with such a provision for final division of the estate of the husband before the judgment becomes absolute by the expiration of the year, or whether anything more could properly be done with relation to any necessary final division and disposition of the husband’s estate or property than to secure the performance of such provisions by requiring the property itself to be held for that period by some trustee, by the giving of adequate security, or by some method that will protect the rights and interests of the parties during the statutory interval.

Under the further proceedings that must be taken herein, the $10,000 paid to the defendant can still be controlled by the court as plaintiff’s property.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
168 N.W. 704, 167 Wis. 615, 1918 Wisc. LEXIS 140, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/white-v-white-wis-1918.