GEORGIA L. EVERETT, Respondent, v. EDWARD EVERETT, Appellant.
Court of Appeals of the State of New York
February 21, 1905
180 N.Y. 452
Statement of case.
The judgment should be reversed and a new trial granted, with costs to abide the event.
GRAY, HAIGHT and VANN, JJ., concur; CULLEN, Ch. J., BARTLETT and WERNER, JJ., dissent.
Judgment reversed, etc.
1. RES ADJUDICATA — FOREIGN JUDGMENT. A judgment of a foreign state denying a petition by an alleged wife for maintenance and support, in which the defense was interposed that her marriage had been annulled in this state upon the ground that she had a husband living at the time she contracted the marriage, is a bar to the maintenance of an action by her to set aside the decree of annulment, for leave to come in and defend and for the determination of the validity of the marriage,
2. SAME — ORDER DENYING MOTION TO OPEN DEFAULT. The mere denial of a motion, however, to open the default and to be permitted to defend, although finally decided after a full hearing upon the facts, both with respect to the merits and as to the fraud claimed to have been practiced upon her, is not a bar to the maintenance of the action.
3. WHEN ACTION NOT EQUIVALENT TO MOTION TO OPEN DEFAULT. Such an action cannot be regarded as simply one to open a default in a prior suit and permit the plaintiff to answer therein where the complaint not only demands that the decree of annulment be set aside as having been procured by fraud, but that the validity of the marriage which had been nullified by that decree be determined.
4. DEFECTIVE FINDING OF FRAUD. In such an action a finding of fraud in general terms, without specifying a single act or a single statement upon which such a conclusion can be predicated, is insufficient to support a judgment in favor of the plaintiff.
Everett v. Everett, 89 App. Div. 619, reversed.
(Argued January 23, 1905; decided February 21, 1905.)
APPEAL from a judgment of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in the second judicial department, entered January 7, 1904, affirming a judgment in favor of plaintiff entered upon a decision of the court on trial at Special Term.
The nature of the action and the facts, so far as material, are stated in the opinion.
George Zabriskie for appellant. The Appellate Division disposed of the appeal upon an erroneous theory of the action. First. By affirming the judgment they have given the plaintiff the entire ultimate relief which she claimed, while avowedly refusing in their opinion to consider whether either upon the facts or in point of law she is entitled to it. Second. The Appellate Division have misapprehended the scope of the action and the effect of the judgment in supposing that it is merely to vacate the judgment in the nullity suit, (Ross v. Wood, 70 N. Y. 8; People ex rel. v. Coffin, 7 Hun, 608;
W. H. Van Steenbergh for respondent. The defendant‘s contention that the proceeding taken in the Probate Court in Massachusetts was res adjudicata has been effectually disposed of on a former appeal. (Everett v. Everett, 75 App. Div. 369; Genet v. D. & H. Co., 170 N. Y. 278.) The decree annulling the marriage of date April, 1888, cannot be held to be res adjudicata, and the Supreme Court has power to vacate and set aside its own judgments, if it appears that they have been obtained by fraud. (Bradstreet v. Ins. Co., 3 Sumn. 604; Blank v. Blank, 107 N. Y. 91; Howell v. Mills, 53 N. Y. 322; Keck v. Werder, 86 N. Y. 264; Hills v. Hermans, 59 N. Y. 396; Dwight v. St. John, 25 N. Y. 203; Matter of Livingston, 34 N. Y. 555; Simons v. Hart, 14 Johns. 63; Van Rensselaer v. Sheriff, 1 Cow. 501; Dolfus v. Frosch, 5 Hill, 493; Mack v. Patchin, 29 How. Pr. 29; 42 N. Y. 167; Riggs v. Pursell, 74 N. Y. 370.) The fraud and decep-
O‘BRIEN, J. In this action the plaintiff sought to set aside a judgment which the defendant had procured against her in the year 1888. The allegations of the complaint in substance are that the judgment was procured by the defendant against the plaintiff by fraud. The courts below have impeached the judgment for fraud and have set it aside.
The appeal presents one of those matrimonial tangles involving numerous contradictions and intricacies. The record contains a mass of testimony, oral and written, which we may not deal with, since the learned court below was unanimous in its decision vacating the judgment. We will in this review deal only with certain questions that arise upon conceded facts, or upon the pleadings, or that have been found by the trial court, and with the exceptions taken to the decision of the trial court upon questions of law. It will require some time and space to state the facts involved in the questions presented in such a way as to make our conclusions intelligible. Some minor questions that were the subject of controversy at the trial need not be referred to. The testimony at the trial discloses numerous contradictions and conflicts, but we think it has little, if any, bearing upon the questions of law that ought to control the case.
On the 30th of October, 1884, the plaintiff and defendant were married by a justice of the peace in Brooklyn. There is no dispute about the fact that a marriage ceremony was performed which was valid in the eye of the law, providing that the parties were qualified to enter into such a contract. It has been found that in December, 1887, the defendant, that is, the husband, commenced an action in the Supreme Court against the plaintiff, the wife, to annul the marriage between the parties. That thereupon such proceedings were had that a judgment was rendered on April 9th, 1888, whereby it was adjudged that no valid contract of marriage had been entered
On the 27th day of May, 1892, nearly four years after the entry of the judgment, the plaintiff herein made a motion to the court in which the judgment was rendered showing that the judgment had been obtained by default, and that she was induced to abstain from defending the same by reason of false and fraudulent representations on the part of her husband, the defendant herein. There is no dispute about the fact that in the action resulting in the judgment the wife made no defense, but the allegations of the complaint were, under the practice of the court, referred to a referee to take testimony as to the facts and report the same to the court. A full hearing was had before the referee. Witnesses were examined and the testimony reported to the court, with the referee‘s conclusions, to the effect that the prayer of the complaint should be granted. This report was confirmed and judgment ordered for the plaintiff in the action. The application of the wife to open the judgment and to be permitted to defend was fully heard at a Special Term of the court; all the facts bearing upon the merits of the action and upon the allegations of fraud on the part of the husband were fully presented on both sides by affidavits, and the court granted the motion, opened the judgment and allowed the wife to come in and defend; but the husband appealed from this order to the General Term, where the case was fully heard, and the order of the Special Term was reversed and the application of the wife was denied. Subsequently a motion was made to the
On the 21st of February, 1895, the wife commenced a proceeding against the husband in the Probate Court for Suffolk county, in the state of Massachusetts, alleging in her petition that she was the defendant‘s wife, and that he without just cause failed to furnish suitable support for her and had deserted her, and that she was living apart from him for justifiable cause, and in her prayer for judgment she asked that the court make such order as it deemed expedient concerning her support. Pursuant to an order made by the court the plaintiff in that proceeding filed specifications stating that she was married to the defendant on October 31st, 1884, and, further, that a legal marriage according to the laws of the state of New York was entered into in that state between her and the defendant on April 15th, 1888. This last marriage is what was termed in the case a common-law marriage. It was also alleged in the petition that the defendant had deserted her on the 30th day of May, 1891, and had since contributed nothing to her support. The husband, who is the defendant in this action, admitted the early marriage and alleged that the same had been declared null and void by the judgment hereinbefore referred to, and further alleged that at the time of the marriage, and also at the time of the alleged subsequent common-law marriage, the plaintiff herein was the wife of another man, giving his name, and that by reason thereof both the supposed marriages between the plaintiff and the defendant, by her alleged, were null and void. On the 25th of March, 1897, the court made a decree whereby it found and decided that the prayer of the plaintiff‘s petition should not be granted and adjudged that the petition be dismissed, and a few days thereafter the present action was commenced. It seems that there have been three trials and three appeals to the Appellate Division in which some feature of the case has been referred to. (Everett v. Everett, 48 App. Div. 475; 75 id. 369; 89 id. 619.)
In the defendant‘s answer in this action he sets forth cer-
The Massachusetts judgment was based upon the petition of the wife and it was founded upon the allegation that she was the defendant‘s wife; that he had deserted her and failed to contribute to her support. These allegations of fact were put in issue by the defendant and must have been determined by the court. An exemplification of the judgment record in the action which annulled the marriage was presented to the Probate Court and admitted in evidence. The court had jurisdiction of the parties and the subject-matter of the controversy and its judicial power extended to every material question in the proceeding. The determination of the court
The decision of the motion made upon the plaintiff‘s application to open the former judgment and to be permitted to defend we think stands upon a different ground. At the time that motion was made there was no issue in the action to be tried, since the defendant therein had made default and the only purpose of the motion was to open that default and to give her an opportunity to make an issue in the case by the service of an answer. Although that motion was in the end decided against her after a full hearing upon the facts, both with respect to the merits of her defense and to the question of fraud which she claimed had been practiced upon her by the husband in order to induce her to refrain from serving an answer, yet we think that was not such a final decision as would operate as an absolute bar to the present action. There is no doubt that the result of a litigation which takes the form of a motion may constitute a bar to another action or proceeding involving the same question. The case of Williams v. Barkley (165 N. Y. 48) is an authority upon that question, in which the rule is stated from the adjudged cases and the elementary books. But the question with respect to the effect of an adjudication upon a motion must always depend upon the nature of the proceeding. A motion to open a default for any reason is generally addressed to the discretion of the court, and is in its nature interlocutory. Such a motion can never result in a decision of the issues involved in the controversy, since it is always predicated upon the fact that the defaulting party has lost the opportunity to present the issue to the court, and the question always is whether the party applying should be permitted to plead.
There is another consideration which we think is conclusive with respect to the character and effect of the order which
There is another question in this case which to a very large extent pervades all the reasoning, and is involved in most of the judicial action of the learned courts below, and that is that this is simply an action to open the plaintiff‘s default in the prior suit and to reinstate her in her original right to defend. In other words, the judgment in this action is sought to be limited in its scope to the purpose for which the motion was made. This, we think, is an erroneous view of the scope of the action and the effect of the judgment. The complaint not only demands that the judgment be set aside as having been procured by fraud, but that the validity of the marriage which had been nullified by that judgment be determined and
Although the judgment of the learned court below was unanimous, still the question is open in this court whether the conclusions of law are supported by the facts found, and whether the exceptions taken present such errors of law as are fatal to the judgment. We have already pointed out what seems to us to be the effect of the former litigations involving the same questions that were litigated in this case. The question of actual fraud on the part of the defendant occupies an important place in the controversy. Much evidence was given at the trial on that question. The allegations of the complaint are full and specific as to the fraud which it is claimed the defendant perpetrated upon the plaintiff. The complaint alleges that about the year 1887 the defendant, with fraudulent intent and for the purpose of misleading and deceiving the plaintiff, represented that his family would never recognize a marriage performed by a justice of the peace, and that a ceremonial marriage would have to take place before a minister of the gospel; that it was necessary to have the marriage ceremony performed by the justice of the peace annulled and set aside; that after that had been done the defendant would have a ceremonial marriage performed by a regularly ordained minister of the gospel; that the proceedings to annul the marriage would be merely formal; that the plaintiff need not give the same any attention whatever, and that the defendant would look after all the details; that
There are many other questions in this case which have been discussed at length upon the argument and are to be found in the briefs of the respective counsel, but it is unnecessary to consider them. We think that the judgment must be reversed, and as there appears to be at least one conclusive obstacle to the plaintiff‘s success, a new trial would be useless, and so the complaint should be dismissed upon the merits.
HAIGHT, J. I favor reversal of the judgment and new trial in this action and concur to that extent with the opinion of O‘BRIEN, J., except in one particular. I do not think that the
GRAY, BARTLETT, VANN and WERNER, JJ., concur, with O‘BRIEN, J.; HAIGHT, J., reads for reversal and new trial; CULLEN, Ch. J., not sitting.
Judgment reversed and complaint dismissed, without costs.
O‘BRIEN, J.
JUDGE OF THE COURT OF APPEALS
