Opinion

McCormack v. McCormack

  • 175 Cal. 292
  • 165 P. 930
  • 1917 Cal. LEXIS 669
Court
California Supreme Court
Filed
Jun 6, 1917
Status
Published
Author
Shaw
On the bench
Shaw
Cited by
9 cases
Authority
More cited than 86.8%

The opinion

VICTOR E. SHAW, J.,

pro tem.

This is an appeal prosecuted by plaintiff upon the judgment-roll alone from a decree denying her a divorce from the defendant.

It appears from the findings that on March 11, 1907, the parties were married in the province of British Columbia, Canada; that thereafter on March 12,1908, in an action therefor brought by defendant herein against plaintiff herein, the superior court of Kings County, state of Washington, after due and regular proceedings had therein, made and entered a judgment whereby it declared the marriage so contracted by the parties null and void, which judgment is in full force and effect, and that at the time of the commencement of the action the parties were not husband and wife.

That these findings support the judgment admit of no possible question, and since the evidence upon which they were made is not incorporated in the record, no question arises as to the sufficiency thereof to support the findings.

(Redlands etc. Water Co.

v.

Redlands,

121 Cal. 365 , [ 53 Pac. 843 ];

Estate of Brown,

143 Cal. 450 , [ 77 Pac. 160 ].)

Appellant insists that since the marriage contracted in Canada was valid, the superior court of Washington, though coneededly having jurisdiction of the parties, could not

*293

legally declare it void. The supreme court of that state has held otherwise. (See

Johnson

v.

Johnson,

57 Wash. 89 , [26 L. R. A. (N. S.) 179, 106 Pac. 500 ].) There is nothing in the record showing the grounds upon which the court acted in annulling the contract of marriage. Presumably, since the contrary is not made to appear, and as the law of Washington touching the subject in the absence of evidence to the contrary is deemed to be the same as that of this state

(O’Sullivan

v.

Griffith,

153 Cal. 502 , [ 95 Pac. 873 , 96 Pac. 323 ];

Fox

v.

Mick,

20 Cal. App. 599 , [ 129 Pac. 972 ]), the action for annulment was based upon some one of the grounds specified in section 82 of the Civil Code as cause for annulling the marriage. With this, however, we are not concerned, since, whether erroneous or not, the final judgment of the superior court of Washington declaring the marriage null and void—there being nothing to show want of jurisdiction— is, under section 1, article IV, of the federal Constitution, entitled to the same consideration and weight as though rendered by a court of this state.

(Philbrook

v.

Newman,

148 Cal. 172, 174 , [ 82 Pac. 772 ].) The appeal is without a semblance of merit.

Judgment affirmed.

Shaw, J., and Sloss, J., concurred.

This is a copy of a public record, reproduced as it was published. It is not legal advice, and it may not be the version a court would rely on. Check the official source before you cite it.

A word about cookies

We need a few to keep you signed in and the library working. The rest help us see which pages people use and where they get stuck. They stay off unless you say yes.