This is an action for registration of a foreign divorce decree, which contained certain money judgments. The District Court allowed said registration. We affirm.
The facts are that Betty Louise Hamilton Tiedeman and Lyle Herman Tiedeman were married in Laurel, Mississippi. Two children were born of that marriage. In December of 1968, the appellant moved from the State *17 of Mississippi to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. He resided there until July of 1971. Appellant then moved to South West City, Missouri, which is approximately 1 mile from the Oklahoma border. The appellee and her children moved from Laurel, Mississippi, to Tulsa, Oklahoma, in December of 1971. The evidence showed that appellant registered and licensed his car in the State of Oklahoma in 197.1 and 1972. Appellant and appellee filed joint federal and state tax returns, for the years 1971 and 1972, listing their residence as Tulsa, Oklahoma. The appellant was notified of the proceedings against him in the District Court for Tulsa County, Oklahoma, by certified mail. His signed return receipt was introduced into evidence without objection. The subject of this appeal is the registration of the judgments of the District Court for Tulsa County, Oklahoma, which required appellant to pay temporary and permanent child support and fees.
The validity of the divorce is not in question. Nebraska has long recognized the divisibility of foreign divorce proceedings. Mandelberg v. Mandelberg,
As we said in Repp v. Repp,
The trial court found that the presumption of validity was not rebutted. Even if the trial court had not found the presumption in effect, it cannot be said that there was a total lack of probative evidence to support that finding, nor that that finding was wrong as a matter of law.
Previously, it was mentioned that due process standards have changed considerably. Any determination here of what standards are necessary for personal jurisdiction must be seen as an attempt to delineate the parameters of Oklahoma law, in other words, whether the Oklahoma court had personal jurisdiction over the appellant. This question turns on the scope of Title 12 Oklahoma Statutes Annotated, section 1701.01 et seq. More specifically, it centers on the seventh base in section 1701.03(a): “(7) maintaining any other relation to this state or to persons or property including support for minor children who are residents of this state which affords a basis for the exercise of personal jurisdiction by this state consistently with the Constitution of the United States.” In interpreting the above section, the Oklahoma Supreme Court asserted: “* * * it is clear from the concluding portion that it was the intention of our legislature to extend the jurisdiction of Oklahoma courts over nonresidents to the outer limits permitted by the due process requirements of the United States Constitution.” Hines v. Clendenning (Okla., 1970),
Here, it cannot be said that there is a total lack of probative evidence to support a court’s finding that either appellant was an Oklahoma resident or that sufficient minimum contacts were present to support personal jurisdiction over the appellant. Appellant admittedly resided in Oklahoma for approximately 3 years, and he planned from the outset to stay in Oklahoma if successful. It is reasonable to assume that appellant would not have come to Oklahoma if he had not intended to be successfully employed. Thus, appellant could be said to have intended to make Oklahoma his domicile. As intent is a mental process, relevant facts and circumstances must be scrutinized. Appellant registered his car in Oklahoma in 1971 and 1972. Appellant also filed joint state and federal income tax returns with appellee in 1971 and 1972. These returns listed Tulsa, Oklahoma, as his residence. The uncertain nature of appellant’s activities in Missouri do not require a finding that he was a resident of that state. The above facts, plus visits of appellant to his family in *21 Tulsa provide ample probative evidence whereby a trial court could find the appellant a resident of Oklahoma.
In some ways, the present case may be seen as the opposite of Hines v. Clendenning, supra. In Hines, the wife was abandoned in Oklahoma. Here, the wife sought to join her husband in Oklahoma, the appellant husband did not want his family to join him. Appellee followed the trail her husband had laid to Oklahoma to seek employment for herself. As appellee still resides in Oklahoma, she cannot be said to be forum shopping. Thus, this is not a species of “migratory” divorce.
Appellee is a resident of Oklahoma and appellant had a sufficient quantum of contacts and personal jurisdiction may attach on that basis. There is no argument by appellant that the Oklahoma statutory procedures relative to service were not met. Appellant admits that he had notice of the proceedings in the District Court for Tulsa County, Oklahoma. Thus, an alternative basis for the trial court’s finding of personal jurisdiction over the appellant could be based on sufficient minimum contacts by the appellant. In an extremely mobile age, this expansive authority to assume in personam jurisdiction clearly is appropriate.
It cannot be said that there was a total lack of probative evidence of appellant’s actions linking him to Oklahoma, or to support a finding that he was an Oklahoma resident, nor can it be said that either of the above conclusions would be wrong as a matter of law. The holding of the District Court for Lancaster County is, therefore, affirmed.
Affirmed.
