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211 N.C. 698

191 S.E 507

McIntyre v. . McIntyre

Supreme Court of North Carolina

Decided June 9, 1937

Supreme Court of North Carolina · decided 1937-06-09

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1937-06-09

How this case has been cited

Cited by 10 later decisions — most recently October 2006

10 state decisions

6019371940195019601970198019902000decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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Devin, J.

¶1 The single question presented by this appeal is this : May a resident of the State, who is the defendant in a suit for alimony, be permitted to set up as a defense thereto the invalidity of a divorce decree which he himself obtained in another state dissolving a previous marriage with a former wife? The answer is “No.”

¶2 While this precise question has never before been considered by this Court, it would not seem to be in accord with reason and justice that one who has voluntarily invoked the jurisdiction of another state for the purpose of obtaining a divorce from a former wife, and has thereby been enabled to enter into marital relations with another, should be heard to impeach the decree which he had obtained, or to question its jurisdiction, when new rights and interests have arisen as a result of his second marriage.

¶3 This is in accord with the decisions in other states where the question has been presented. Bledsoe v. Seaman, 77 Kan., 679; Starbuck v. Starbuck, 173 N. Y., 503; People ex rel. Shrady v. Shrady, 95 N. Y. Supp., 991; Kaufman v. Kaufman, 163 N. Y. Supp., 566; Guggenheim v. Wahl, 203 N. Y., 390; Re Ellis, 55 Minn., 401; Laird v. Texas, 79 Tex. Crim. Rep., 129; Asbury v. Powers (Ky.), 65 S. W., 605; 23 L. R. A., 287; 3 A. L. R., 522, and note; 39 A. L. R., 695, and note; 9 R. C. L., sec. 268; 19 C. J., 378; North Carolina Law Review, Vol. XV, No. 2, p. 136.

¶4 While the validity of the Nevada divorce might be successfully assailed by other parties and under other circumstances (Pridgen v. Pridgen, 203 N. C., 533), we conclude that on the facts of this case there *700 was no error in the instructions to the jury given by the court below on the second issue.

¶5 Other exceptions noted at the trial were not brought forward by the appeal and need not be considered.

¶6 No error.

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