Gibson v. Hughes

• Decision Date: 14 March 1961
• Parties: Yvonne Broussaud GIBSON, Plaintiff, v. Thomas F. HUGHES, Deputy Commissioner of the United States Department of Labor, Foreign Compensation District, Atlas Constructors, Commercial Insurance Co. of Newark, New Jersey, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of New York

192 F. Supp. 564

Yvonne Broussaud GIBSON, Plaintiff, v. Thomas F. HUGHES, Deputy Commissioner of the United States Department of Labor, Foreign Compensation District, Atlas Constructors, Commercial Insurance Co. of Newark, New Jersey, Defendants.

United States District Court S. D. New York.

March 14, 1961.

Lewy, Rosoff & Stern, New York City, for plaintiff. Theodore H. Friedman, New York City, of counsel.

S. Hazard Gillespie, Jr., U. S. Atty. for the S. D. of New York, New York City, for the United States. Anthony H. Atlas, Asst. U. S. Atty., New York City, of counsel.

FREDERICK van PELT BRYAN, District Judge.

This is an action to review a compensation order and award of a Deputy Commissioner of the United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Employee's Compensation, Foreign Compensation District, made under the Longshoremen's & Harbor Workers' Compensation Act, 33 U.S.C.A. § 901 et seq., as extended to defense base areas by 42 U.S.C.A. § 1651 et seq. The order and award denied death benefits to the plaintiff who claims to be entitled thereto as the lawful surviving wife of Rama R. Gibson, deceased.

This court has jurisdiction and venue is properly laid under 33 U.S.C.A. § 921 as modified by 42 U.S.C.A. § 1653.

Both the plaintiff and the Deputy Commissioner have moved for summary judgment on the record before the Bureau.

There is no dispute as to the facts. The only question is the correctness of the Deputy Commissioner's conclusion of law in refusing an award to plaintiff Yvonne Broussaud Gibson on the ground that she "was not the lawful surviving wife of the decedent" under § 909 of the Longshoremen's & Harbor Workers' Compensation Act. 33 U.S.C.A. § 909. The term "surviving wife" is the equivalent of "widow" as defined in Section 902(16) of the Act. See Weeks v. Behrend, 77 U.S.App.D.C. 341, 135 F.2d 258. "Widow" is defined in that section as including "only decedent's wife living with him or dependent for support upon him at the time of his death * * *."

The undisputed facts as found by the Deputy Commissioner are as follows:

On August 23, 1943, the decedent, Rama R. Gibson, a citizen of the United States and then a resident of the District of Columbia, married Marion Browne. The marriage took place in Maryland. On June 23, 1946 the decedent and Marion Browne Gibson voluntarily separated. After separation had persisted for more than five years without cohabitation, an interlocutory judgment of divorce in favor of Marion Browne Gibson was entered in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia on June 29, 1953.

The judgment provided that it "shall not take effect until the expiration of six months from the date hereof." The effective date was therefore December 29, 1953.

After the separation from Marion Gibson the decedent left the United States and went to France where he lived with Yvonne Broussaud, the plaintiff, from 1946 until 1948. In 1948 Gibson and plaintiff moved to Tunis and in 1949 they went to what was then French Morocco. Two children were born of this relationship, one in 1947 and the second a year later.

On December 10, 1953 the decedent and plaintiff entered into a civil ceremonial marriage at Casablanca, Morocco. Some months later, in September of 1954, the births of the two children were registered with the United States Department of State at Casablanca as the lawful children of Rama R. and Yvonne Gibson.

The couple continued to live together in what they both considered to be a state of matrimony until Rama Gibson was killed in an accident on May 5, 1956 at a defense base at Nouasseur, French Morocco, while employed as a truck foreman for defendant Atlas Constructors. His employment was within the coverage of the Longshoremen's & Harbor Workers' Compensation Act as extended to Defense Base Areas. There is no question but that the accident was such as to entitle those covered by the statute to death benefits.

Such benefits have been denied Yvonne Gibson solely on the ground that because she married decedent on December 10, 1953, nineteen days before the District of Columbia divorce between decedent and Marion Browne Gibson became final, she is not a "surviving wife" within the meaning of the Compensation Act.

The Deputy Commissioner found specifically that on December 10, 1953 Gibson was not legally divorced from his first wife, that his civil marriage to the plaintiff at Casablanca on that day was "not a valid marriage", that plaintiff was not the legal wife of Gibson on that day, and that she was not his widow or lawful surviving wife on May 5, 1956, three years later when Gibson was killed

Plaintiff claims that the Commissioner's conclusions were in error since the applicable law determining the marital status of plaintiff is that of French Morocco, which is the same as the law of France¹, and under such law plaintiff is recognized as Gibson's lawful wife at the time of his death.

Defendant Commissioner maintains that the controlling law is not that of French Morocco but either the law of New York, which he claims to be the forum, or the law of the District of Columbia, governing the prior marriage between Gibson and Marion Browne. In any event, he says that the technical defect in plaintiff's marriage is such as to exclude her from being Gibson's "surviving wife" within the meaning of the Compensation Act.

The problem of what law governs the plaintiff's rights lies at the threshold of the case. Congress might have chosen to spell out the answer to the problem in the statute and had it done so the problem could be determined from the statute itself. But it did not choose to do so and therefore it must be decided which of several alternative choices of law should control.

One solution is to view the question as one of federal law since a purely federal right is involved. Cf. Clearfield Trust Co. v. United States, 318 U.S. 363, 63 S.Ct. 573, 87 L.Ed. 838. The statute may also be viewed as incorporating the "appropriate" law in the conflicts of laws sense in so far as such law would be within the tolerable limits of the statutory language. See De Sylva v. Ballentine, 351 U.S. 570, 581, 76 S.Ct. 974, 100 L.Ed. 1415. Alternatively, taking into account the purpose and policy of the legislation, the appropriate law of domestic relations might be applied only when and to the extent that such law harmonizes with the legislative purpose. Nott v. Flemming, 2 Cir., 272 F.2d 380; Beebe v. Moormack Gulf Lines, 5 Cir., 59 F.2d 319, 320, certiorari denied 287 U.S. 597, 53 S.Ct. 22, 77 L.Ed. 520; Thompson v. Lawson, 347 U.S. 334, 336, 74 S.Ct. 555, 98 L.Ed. 733. But see Bolin v. Marshall, 9 Cir., 76 F.2d 668, certiorari denied 296 U.S. 573, 56 S.Ct. 116, 80 L.Ed. 404.

Neither of the parties urges that purely federal law applies, and, in fact, this would not be appropriate here. While a federal right is involved the statute deals with a familial relationship. There is no federal law of domestic relations, which is primarily the concern of the locality. De Sylva v. Ballentine, supra, 351 U.S. at page 580, 76 S.Ct. at page 979. The problem, therefore, is to determine whether the law governing the marital status of the plaintiff is that of New York, of the District of Columbia, or of French Morocco (the law of France).

The normal conflicts rule determining marital status is that of the place where the marriage was contracted or of the domicile of the contracting parties. Here both coincide in French Morocco and the normally appropriate law in the conflicts sense would be the law of France.

The plaintiff proved the law of France applicable to her situation as a fact before the Commissioner by the affidavit of a member of the bar of France as an expert on French law. His credentials were not questioned before the Commissioner nor are they here, and no evidence controverting or impeaching in any way that presented by the plaintiff was offered.²

The uncontroverted evidence on this record is (1) that under French law there is a presumption of validity attached to the plaintiff's duly celebrated and recorded marriage to the decedent unless and until a court action is brought adjudicating that marriage to be invalid; (2) that even were an action brought for an adjudication of the invalidity of the marriage the full benefits of a putative marriage would be accorded her; and (3) that plaintiff as a spouse in good faith of a putative marriage "is accorded the full recognition and civil effects of a widow and surviving wife as of the date of death of her husband if such date is prior to the adjudication of invalidity, which effects will include the right to a pension and compensation benefits as surviving wife, where such spouse is the sole eligible and possible claimant."³

The defendant recognizes that French law would ordinarily be applied here to determine plaintiff's status unless such law is against the public policy of the forum. He urges, however, that in this case the public policy of the forum is against French law which therefore cannot be applied.

To reach this conclusion defendant takes the curious position that the law of New York is the law of the forum and should be determinative here. I see no merit in this position. It is true that in entirely different circumstances it has been held that local law should be utilized to determine questions of status where there are relevant local contacts, e. g., De Sylva v. Ballentine, supra. But here there are no local contacts whatsoever. As far as appears neither plaintiff, decedent, or his former wife were ever in the State of New York. The marriages, the divorce and the domicile of any of the parties have no nexus with New York.

It would be entirely unwarranted to say that because a federal administrative agency happens to be sitting in a locality which has no contacts whatsoever with the matter in issue, the public policy of that place is the law of the forum and should govern a federal right. It is quite...