Fritz v. Fritz

• Decision Date: 19 December 1962
• Citation: 55 Del. 328,5 Storey 328,187 A.2d 348
• Parties: , 55 Del. 328 Katherine Meinhardt FRITZ, Defendant Below, Appellant, v. William George FRITZ, Plaintiff Below, Appellee.
• Court: Supreme Court of Delaware

Page 348

187 A.2d 348

5 Storey 328, 55 Del. 328

Katherine Meinhardt FRITZ, Defendant Below, Appellant, v. William George FRITZ, Plaintiff Below, Appellee.

Supreme Court of Delaware.

Dec. 19, 1962.

Appeal from the Superior Court in and for New Castle County.

Aaron Finger, of Richards, Layton & Finger, and John M. Bader, of Bader & Biggs, Wilmington, for appellant.

David Snellenburg, II, of Killoran & Van Brunt, Wilmington, for appellee.

SOUTHERLAND, C. J., and WOLCOTT and TERRY, JJ., sitting.

WOLCOTT, Justice.

This is an appeal from a final judgment of divorce entered at the suit of the husband. The appeal presents solely the question of the jurisdiction of the Superior Court to grant a divorce under the circumstances of this cause.

The husband, plaintiff below, is a Colonel in the regular Army of the United States, and has been on continuous active duty since his graduation from the Military Academy in 1933. Prior to July 3, 1959 the plaintiff had been stationed, pursuant to orders, at a number of different Army posts, both foreign and domestic. On July 3, 1959, by regular assignment of duty, he was stationed in Delaware as Army Advisor to the Delaware National Guard. Upon his arrival in Delaware the plaintiff established a residence in an apartment house in Wilmington and thereafter moved to another apartment. His mailing address was a post office box. Up to this time he had never lived in Delaware.

As far as appears from the record before us, the plaintiff had not purchased a home in Delaware; had not registered his automobile in Delaware; had not voted in Delaware; had not paid his taxes in Delaware; and, in short, had taken no action to evidence any intent other than residing here pursuant to his military orders.

The defendant wife, after contesting the action, appeals from the judgment of divorce on the ground that the Superior Court of Delaware had no jurisdiction over the marriage of the parties because the plaintiff had never acquired a domicile in Delaware. She argues that jurisdiction to dissolve a marriage is acquired only through the domicile of the parties, which carries with it jurisdiction over the marriage itself.

By 13 Del.C. § 1527, when a defendant cannot be served personally in the State of Delaware, jurisdiction for the purposes of divorce is conferred upon the Superior Court 'when at the time of the commencement of the action the plaintiff is a bona fide resident of this State.' The meaning of the phrase 'bona fide resident' was defined in Cohen v. Cohen, 3 Boyce 361, 84 A. 122, as requiring something more than a mere residence and as the equivalent of a domicile.

The requirement that jurisdiction over divorce depends upon domicile of the spouses thus found in the Delaware statute is in accord with the general law which is that jurisdiction to award a divorce depends upon jurisdiction over the res, a marriage status, which follows the domicile of the spouses. It is necessary, therefore, in order to place the res within the State that the domicile of at least one of the spouses be within the State. 17 Am.Jur., Divorce and Separation, § 280; 27A C.J.S. Divorce § 71; Ainscow v. Alexander, 28 Del.Ch. 545, 39 A.2d 54.

In New York Trust Co. v. Riley, 24 Del.Ch. 354, 16 A.2d 772, a domicile is defined as a dwelling place with the intention to make that place the resident's permanent home. It requires a concurrence of the fact of living at a particular place with the necessary intention of making that the permanent home. Absent this intent, no domicile exists at the place of living. And see Restatement, Conflicts, § 15.

Thus, in the case at bar, the plaintiff, to support the jurisdiction of the Superior Court to award him a divorce, must affirmatively show that he was domiciled in Delaware, that is, that he lived in Delaware with the intention of making Delaware his permanent home.

The plaintiff contends that he acquired a Delaware domicile by reason of his residence here, even though he removed to this State pursuant to military orders. There may be a presumption that the place where a person actually lives is his domicile, particularly when he has only one place of abode, but that presumption does not apply in the case of a person who, pursuant to orders of the military, acquires a residence in order to carry out his orders....