Esenwein v. Commonwealth Ex Rel. Esenwein
Esenwein v. Commonwealth Ex Rel. Esenwein
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the Court.
This case involves the same problem as that which was considered in Williams v. North Carolina, ante, p. 226. There are minor variations of fact, but the considerations which controlled the result in the Williams case govern this.
Petitioner and respondent were married in Pennsylvania in 1899. They separated in 1919 but continued to live there. The wife, respondent, obtained a support order in the Pennsylvania courts which was modified from
Since, according to Pennsylvania law, a support order does not survive divorce, Commonwealth v. Parker, 59 Pa. Super. 74; Commonwealth v. Kurniker, 96 Pa. Super. 553, the efficacy of the' Nevada divorce in Pennsylvania is the decisive question in the case. The facts relating to domicil are not essentially different from those set forth in Williams v. North Carolina, ante, p. 226, except that petitioner, instead of staying in an auto court, lived in a hotel and did not return to Pennsylvania, his domiciliary state before he came to Nevada, but went to Ohio.
The Full Faith and Credit Clause placed the Pennsylvania courts under duty to accord -prima facie validity to the Nevada decree. The burden is on the litigant who would escape the operation of a judgment decreed in an
Petitioner makes a subsidiary claim which need not detain us long. He asserts that he had no notice that the Nevada domicil was to be put in issue, and that therefore it was unfair to decide that question on this record. He points to the fact that for its decision the County Court relied on the Pennsylvania denials of divorce as res judi-cata, whereas the appellate courts rested their decisions on the issue of domicil. Since the record does not support the basis of this claim, we are relieved from considering its legal significance. The issue of domicil was appropriately pleaded in defense, it was contested at the trial, and before the Superior Court petitioner filed a supplemental brief on that issue. A claim of deprivation of opportunity to be heard on the question of domicil before the Pennsylvania courts is without merit.
Affirmed.
Concurring Opinion
concurring.
I think it is important to keep in mind a basic difference between the problem of marital capacity and the problem of support.
Concurring Opinion
concurring.
In accordance with the views which I have expressed in Williams v. North Carolina, ante, p. 226, I do not think full faith and credit have been given by the Pennsylvania courts to the Nevada decree in this case. But upon the basis of the Court’s decision in that case, made' applicable also in this one, I concur in the result. In doing so, however, it is appropriate to indicate' my agreement with the views expressed in the concurring opinion of Mr. Justice Douglas that the jurisdictional foundation for a decree in one state capable of foreclosing an action for maintenance or support in another may be different from that required to alter marital status with extraterritorial effect.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- ESENWEIN v. COMMONWEALTH Ex Rel. ESENWEIN
- Cited By
- 176 cases
- Status
- Published