German Savings Loan Society v. Dora May Dormitzer

• Decision Date: 04 January 1904
• Docket Number: No. 104,104
• Parties: GERMAN SAVINGS & LOAN SOCIETY, Plff. in Err. , v. DORA MAY DORMITZER, William L. Tull, and Ernest B. Tull
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

192 U.S. 125

24 S.Ct. 221

48 L.Ed. 373

GERMAN SAVINGS & LOAN SOCIETY, Plff. in Err.,

v DORA MAY DORMITZER, William L. Tull, and Ernest B. Tull.

No. 104.

Argued December 16, 17, 1903.

Decided January 4, 1904.

Messrs. William Scott Goodfellow, E. C. Hughes, and W. W. Hindman for plaintiff in error.

Messrs. Robert A. Howard and Lucius G. Nash for defendants in error.

Messrs. William M. Murray and Frederick W. Dewart for Ernest B. Tull.

Mr. Justice Holmes delivered the opinion of the court:

This is a writ of error to the supreme court of Washington on the ground that full faith and credit has not been given to a decree of divorce rendered in the state of Kansas. See 23 Wash. 132, 62 Pac. 862. The record is long, but all that is material to the case in this court can be stated in a few words. The defendants in error are the children of one F. M. Tull, and brought a complaint for the purpose, so far as the savings society, the plaintiff in error, is concerned, of establishing their right to an undivided share in certain land in Spokane, Washington, to which the savings society claims an absolute title. At least, that form of relief was held to be open under their complaint. Their claim was made on the ground that the land was community property of their parents, and that they inherited an undivided share upon their mother's death. The savings society claimed under the foreclosure of a mortgage executed by F. M. Tull. Before the execution of their mortgage, and after Tull had applied for a loan, his wife died, and probate proceedings were instituted under which Tull purported to purchase his children's interest as a preliminary to making the mortgage. It has been decided that these probate proceedings were void as against a purchaser with notice, and that the savings society took with notice. These are local matters, with which we have no concern. But the savings society contended that it had a good title, irrespective of these proceedings. The land was purchased with the proceeds of Kansas property which seems to have stood in the name of F. M. Tull. Tull procured a divorce in Kansas, and, if that divorce was valid, his wife's interest in his property was gone. Therefore, it is said, the land in Washington followed the character of the purchase money as his separate property, although, before the payment was completed, the divorced parties made up their differences, and were married to each other a second time.

The supreme court of Washington, trying the case de novo, found that Tull had changed his domicil from Kansas to Washington before beginning his divorce proceedings, and therefore that the decree was without jurisdiction, and void. It further found, on evidence satisfactory to itself, that, the divorce being out of the way, the property was joint or community property, and that his children had the right they claimed. With this last again we are not concerned, and the only question for us is whether the court could go behind the record of the Kansas case.

There is a motion to dismiss. It is said that the Federal question was not set up in the court below, and that the court put its decision on two distinct grounds, one of which was that the society was estopped to deny the children's title. The latter ground, it is said, was independent of the Federal question. But the opinion of the court deals expressly with the constitutional rights of the savings society, and the society seems to have insisted on those rights as soon as the divorce was attacked. Tullock v. Mulvane, 184 U. S. 497, 503, 504, 46 L. ed. 657, 662, 663, 22 Sup. Ct. Rep. 372. As to the other point, it is at least doubtful whether the court meant to find any estoppel except on the footing that the property was shown to be community property. The motion to dismiss is overruled. See Johnson v. Risk, 137 U. S. 300, 307, 34 L. ed. 683, 686, 11 Sup. Ct. Rep. 111.

On the merits, however, the plaintiff in error has no case. It is suggested that the invalidity of the judgment for want of jurisdiction was not put in issue in the pleadings. It is a sufficient answer that the supreme court of the state treated it as in issue. Hill v....