Hardy v. Hardy

• Decision Date: 23 February 1966
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 4075-61.
• Parties: Russell HARDY, Sr., Plaintiff, v. Elisabeth C. HARDY, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Columbia

250 F. Supp. 956

Russell HARDY, Sr., Plaintiff, v. Elisabeth C. HARDY, Defendant.

Civ. A. No. 4075-61.

United States District Court District of Columbia.

February 23, 1966.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Malvern J. Sheffield, Jr., Brookhart, Becker & Dorsey, Washington, D. C., for plaintiff.

Michael F. X. Dolan, Washington, D. C., for defendant.

KEECH, District Judge.

This action is before the court following affirmance by the Court of Appeals of this court's judgment in Hardy v. Hardy, D.C., 235 F.Supp. 208 (1964). The original order of affirmance, dated December 15, 1965, was modified on January 5, 1966, to include a recitation that the affirmance was without prejudice to a renewal of plaintiff's motion under Fed. R.Civ.P. 60(b). This court has granted plaintiff's motion to effectuate the affirmed judgment, with an exception as to count 4 of plaintiff's supplemental and amended complaint, in regard to which plaintiff asks for relief under 60(b) (5) and (6)—vacation of judgment—and the entry of summary judgment. In 1964, when this case was originally determined, the plaintiff Russell Hardy and defendant Elisabeth C. Hardy were still married. This court held it was therefore unable to partition property held by the couple in an estate by the entireties. Since that judgment was entered the plaintiff, Russell Hardy, has been granted a divorce by the Circuit Court of Montgomery County, Maryland, on the ground of defendant Elisabeth Hardy's desertion. Plaintiff now asks this court to declare forfeited the defendant's one-half interest in the fund arising from the sale of the marital domicile in Kenwood, Maryland, and to grant summary judgment in plaintiff's favor as to the entire fund. Plaintiff relies on the doctrine enunciated in Moore v. Moore, 51 App.D. C. 304, 278 F. 1017 (1922), and subsequent cases, to the effect that when title is taken jointly in the names of husband and wife, the husband furnishing all the consideration, the wife's continued interest in the property is dependent upon her faithful observance of the marital vows, and that a breach of those vows results in a forfeiture of her interest. Defendant contends that the law of Maryland must be applied, and that under Maryland law the taking of property jointly in the name of husband and wife with one spouse alone providing the consideration works as an absolute gift of a one-half interest to the non-paying spouse.

Plaintiff and defendant were married in 1939. On August 1, 1942, plaintiff purchased, with his funds, a house in Kenwood, Maryland, to be used as the marital domicile, placing title in the name of his wife. In 1946, through a straw, title was placed in the Hardys as tenants by the entireties. Fifteen years later, in September, 1961, following increased marital difficulties, a contract for the sale of the Kenwood house was executed by the husband and wife. This was followed on October 10, 1961, by defendant's desertion of the plaintiff. The house was sold on October 17, 1961. There was an agreement dated October 17, 1961, between Mr. and Mrs. Hardy that payment for the property would be in the form of a check made to the Hardys as tenants by the entireties, and it was further stated that the agreement was "without prejudice to the respective rights of Russell Hardy Sr. and Elisabeth C. Hardy". The check the Hardys received in payment was drawn on the Riggs National Bank in Washington, and entrusted to Michael F. X. Dolan, defendant's attorney. In December of 1961, Riggs cashed this check, issuing to the Hardys, again as tenants by the entireties, six cashier's checks drawn on that bank. On June 20, 1962, the Circuit Court of Montgomery County entered an order, pursuant to a petition by Elisabeth Hardy, permitting the deposit of the checks with the Clerk of that Court pending final determination of the case of Hardy v. Hardy in this Court. On April 20, 1965, plaintiff was granted a divorce by the Circuit Court of Montgomery County on the ground of defendant's desertion on October 10, 1961; no appeal was taken from that decree. Subsequently, on November 15, 1965, the Maryland Court ordered its appointed trustee to deposit the six checks in interest-paying savings and loan institutions.

Defendant contends that the law of Maryland controls. Plaintiff argues that the situs of the real estate, from the sale of which the contested fund resulted, does not determine the law to be applied. It is his contention that, from the time this suit was brought until the time at which the forfeiture is said to have occurred, the contested property was personalty, in the form of either a check drawn on a Washington bank or cashier's checks of a Washington bank; that, no matter where the checks themselves were, the situs of the obligation was in the District of Columbia and District law should govern rights thereto. It is argued that defendant's interest in the fund was forfeited on the date the Maryland decree awarding plaintiff a divorce on the ground of defendant's desertion became final, this date being prior to the time the checks were deposited in Maryland savings and loan institutions. Plaintiff then submits that the Moore doctrine, which has hitherto been applied only to real estate, should be applied to intangible personalty. Counsel cites the broadening trend evidenced in Schultze v. Schultze, 112 U.S.App.D.C. 162, 300 F.2d 917 (1962), where the Moore doctrine was extended to commercial realty.

Plaintiff further maintains that jurisdiction arises solely from D.C.Code § 16-409 (1961), re-enacted as § 16-910 (Supp. V, 1966). The court is constrained to reject this contention. The legislative history of § 16-409 reveals a single Congressional intent: to endow the District of Columbia court which entered a divorce decree with the power to adjudicate, in the same action, the property rights of the parties before it. S. Rep.No. 720, 74th Cong., 1st Sess., p. 2 (1935); H.R.Rep.No.1532, 74th Cong., 1st Sess., pp. 4-5 (1935). Prior to this, a separate equity action was required. Neither Scholl v. Scholl, 80 U.S.App.D.C. 292, 152 F.2d 672 (1945), nor Heath v. Heath, 89 U.S.App.D.C. 68, 189 F.2d 697 (1951), both cited by plaintiff, holds that § 16-409 is the sole basis upon which a District of Columbia court can exercise jurisdiction where the parties before it have been divorced by a foreign decree. The defendant in Scholl maintained that § 16-409, in particular the words "in the same proceeding in which such decree is entered", by implication ousted the court of jurisdiction where that court was not also entering a divorce decree. Judge Prettyman, in rejecting this contention, did not say the court had jurisdiction under § 16-409, but rather cited general jurisdictional principles. See 80 U.S.App.D.C. 292, 295, 152 F.2d 672, 675. The holding in Heath v. Heath sprang from the substantive portion of § 16-409; it held that the section applied to property settlement agreements when a foreign divorce was obtained. Thus a husband and wife could retain the incidents of a tenancy by the entirety or a joint tenancy after their marriage was dissolved if they so agreed. Again, there is no statement that § 16-409 is the basis of jurisdiction in an action to adjudicate the property rights of foreignly divorced parties. The language of the section, its legislative history, and the cases which interpret it, all lead the court to believe that plaintiff's contention is not correct. This is an equity action and the parties are before the court. Furthermore, while the fund is physically in Maryland, the Maryland Court, under whose control it now is, has specifically ordered that it be held pending the disposition of this suit.¹ The court bases its jurisdiction on the general grant of authority found in D.C.Code § 11-306 (1961).

Acting under the jurisdiction so conferred, the court concludes that Mrs. Hardy is entitled to half the contested fund on two separate grounds: first, the agreement (as fully set out hereinafter) that the sale of the Kenwood property would be without prejudice to their respective rights; and second, apart from the agreement, the consideration which the court finds Mrs. Hardy gave for the rights she received in the tenancy by the entireties that existed in the checks.

It will be gleaned from what follows that basic to both grounds is the accepted proposition that the law of the situs of realty determines the rights and obligations to that property. DeVaughn v. Hutchinson, 165 U.S. 566, 570, 17 S. Ct. 461, 41 L.Ed. 827 (1896); Darby's Lessee v. Mayer, 10 Wheat. (23 U.S.) 465, 468-469, 6 L.Ed. 367 (1825). See Sunderland v. United States, 266 U.S. 226, 45 S.Ct. 64, 69 L.Ed. 259 (1924); Greenwood v. Page, 78 U.S.App.D.C. 166, 168, 138 F.2d 921 (1943). Our Court of Appeals, in Filson v. Fountain, dealing with rights in real estate in New Jersey, stated:

"Since the land involved in this suit is in New Jersey, the law of that state must govern any decision here with regard to the interests, legal or equitable, of the parties in that property * * *".

84 U.S.App.D.C. 46, 48, 171 F.2d 999, 1001, reversed on other grounds, 336 U.S. 681, 69 S.Ct. 754, 93 L.Ed. 971 (1948). In regard to equitable interest, the Restatement of Conflicts states that the issue of whether a person has an equitable interest in land is determined by the law of the state where the land is, and further, that a court of one state cannot by its decree create an equitable interest in the land of another state. Restatement, Conflict of Laws §§ 239, 240 (1934); Restatement (Second), Conflict of Laws §§ 239, 240 (Tent.Draft No. 5, 1959). These principles are grounded on strong policy considerations. Land is within the exclusive control of the state of the situs, and that state legitimately has a paramount interest in the determination of rights to land within its borders. Considerations of certainty, convenience, and uniformity also dictate the rule. Transactions in land are...