Schenker v. Schenker

Headnote

Schenker v. Schenker, 181 App. Div. 621 , affirmed.

Appeal from an order of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in the first judicial department, entered February 15, 1918, reversing a judgment in favor of plaintiff entered upon a decision of the court on trial at Special Term and granting a new trial in an action to annul a marriage upon the ground that at the time of entering into such marriage the defendant had a husband living by a former marriage. The defense was that defendant had been legally divorced prior to her second marriage. The trial court held that said divorce was illegal and void upon the ground that it was obtained without personal service of process upon the husband and that he had not voluntarily appeared in that action. The Appellate Division held that that rule is enforcible only for the protection of citizens of this State and since, at the time the action for divorce was pending in the Alabama courts, neither of the parties thereto was a citizen of this state and neither the plaintiff nor the defendant herein was a citizen of this state when the marriage was solemnized in South Carolina, the rule did not apply, and that the marriage, being lawful in South Carolina, was lawful and could not be questioned in this state.