37 So. 2d 921 | Ala. | 1948
Suit by appellant husband to annul the marriage of the parties entered into in Las Vegas, Nevada, on February 2, 1946. Suit was filed in the Circuit Court, in Equity, of Shelby County, Alabama, where the parties had lived together as husband and wife for nearly fifteen months when the complaint was filed on April 15, 1947.
This action was grounded on the allegation that the wife had a living husband at the time she reputedly married appellant. In support of the allegation, appellant attempted to show the invalidity of a Reno divorce granted the wife from her first husband, Charles S. Eaton, on January 30, 1946.
The trial court heard the testimony ore tenus and dismissed complainant's bill. This appeal is from that decree.
There are two reasons, either of which must necessarily result in an affirmance of the ruling of the court below. In the first place, the Nevada decree dissolving the bonds of matrimony between Charles S. Eaton and Margaret Eaton is res adjudicata between the parties, and under the full faith and credit clause of the Federal Constitution, Article 4, section 1, must be respected in this State. Ex parte Jones,
In the second place, complainant is estopped to deny the validity of the Nevada decree, even though it was fraudulently obtained. As stated, the testimony in this cause was taken ore tenus. We will not attempt to here set it out in detail, suffice it to say it is ample to support a finding that complainant was the principal movant in the divorce proceeding in Nevada. Whatever may be the rule in other jurisdictions, this Court is committed to the proposition that one in privity with a person who by fraudulent conduct procures a divorce decree is estopped to question its validity. Fairclough v. St. Amand,
Affirmed.
BROWN, SIMPSON and STAKELY, JJ., concur.
