Maghu v. Singh

• Decision Date: 12 January 2018
• Docket Number: No. 2017-135,No. 2017-134,2017-134,2017-135
• Citation: 2018 VT 2
• Court: Vermont Supreme Court
• Parties: Taranjit Kaur Maghu v. Prabhjot Singh Prabhjot Singh v. Taranjit Kaur Maghu

2018 VT 2

Taranjit Kaur Maghu v. Prabhjot Singh

Prabhjot Singh v. Taranjit Kaur Maghu

No. 2017-134

No. 2017-135

Supreme Court of Vermont

September Term, 2017

January 12, 2018

NOTICE: This opinion is subject to motions for reargument under V.R.A.P. 40 as well as formal revision before publication in the Vermont Reports. Readers are requested to notify the Reporter of Decisions by email at: JUD.Reporter@vermont.gov or by mail at: Vermont Supreme Court, 109 State Street, Montpelier, Vermont 05609-0801, of any errors in order that corrections may be made before this opinion goes to press.

On Appeal from Superior Court, Washington Unit, Family Division

Kevin W. Griffin, J.

Matthew J. Buckley, Williston, for Plaintiff-Appellee/Cross-Appellant Prabhjot Singh.

Charles S. Martin of Charles S. Martin & Associates, PC, Barre, for Defendant-Appellant/Cross-Appellee Taranjit Kaur Maghu.

PRESENT: Reiber, C.J., Skoglund, Robinson, Eaton and Carroll, JJ.

¶ 1. ROBINSON, J. Wife appeals the denial of her motion to dismiss husband's divorce complaint under the theory that husband's nonimmigration visa status prevents him from being a Vermont domiciliary. In addition, wife argues that husband's complaint should be dismissed because Indian law governs the dissolution of the parties' marriage. We hold that husband's nonimmigration visa status is not an impediment to his establishing Vermont residency for purposes of filing a divorce action, and that the trial court properly denied wife's motion to dismiss. We affirm.

¶ 2. The material facts are as follows. Husband was raised in India and attended high school and college there. In 2009, he moved to Montreal, Canada to pursue a master's degree in food science and engineering from McGill University. In 2011, Keurig Green Mountain, Inc. (employer) hired husband to be a research scientist, and brought him to Vermont on a temporary H-1B employment visa. In 2016, the employer received approval for husband's I-140 immigration application, which, as explored more fully below, put him on track for a permanent resident visa.

¶ 3. Since 2011, husband has lived in Vermont. Husband has received his Vermont driver's license, opened an account with a local bank, opened a 401K retirement account with his employer, and has accumulated five credit cards, all issued in the United States. Over the last six years, husband has returned to India three times: a two-and-a-half-week trip in 2012 for his engagement to wife; a three-week trip in 2013 for the couple's wedding; and a two-week trip in 2014 for his sister's wedding.

¶ 4. In 2012, husband met wife, who was then residing in India. The couple married in India a short time later. Soon after the wedding, wife moved with husband to Vermont on a 4-H spouse-dependent visa; she has lived in Vermont ever since.

¶ 5. In December 2015, while wife was on a trip to India, husband filed for a no-fault divorce in Washington County Superior Court. Upon her return, in March 2016, wife filed a complaint against husband for separate statutory spousal maintenance.¹ The two proceedings were consolidated.²

¶ 6. Wife moved to dismiss husband's divorce complaint on four bases. First, she contended that the court lacked subject matter jurisdiction because husband's nonimmigration H-1B visa status made it impossible as a matter of law for him to claim Vermont residency. Second, wife asserted that the court should dismiss the complaint on the basis of comity because India—where the couple married—recognizes only fault grounds for divorce. Third, she argued that the contractual doctrine of lex loci demanded that the court look to the divorce laws of the jurisdiction in which the couple were married. Under wife's theory, if the grounds for divorce are "not authorized by the jurisdiction where the [marriage] contract was entered into, the person seeking relief cannot obtain it in another jurisdiction." Fourth, wife argued that the doctrine of equitable estoppel barred the complaint because husband originally filed for divorce while wife was in India, and thus husband had attempted to deny wife entrance back into the country, participation in the divorce, and her opportunity to file for a permanent resident visa.

¶ 7. In February 2017, after an evidentiary hearing, the court denied wife's motion to dismiss. Noting case law from other jurisdictions, the court held that a nonimmigrant alien may establish Vermont domicile by proving intent to remain coupled with positive steps toward obtaining U.S. citizenship. In concluding that husband lived in Vermont and intended to remain here indefinitely, the court relied on the fact that husband had lived and worked continuously in Vermont since 2011; had a Vermont driver's license and vehicle registration, local bank account, and United States-issued credits cards; and had returned to India for only a few brief visits over the course of his years living in Vermont. The court found that husband's actions in pursuit of a permanent resident visa, combined with the factors noted above, were sufficient to establish his domicile in Vermont.

¶ 8. The court likewise rejected wife's remaining arguments. The court declined to defer to Indian law on the basis of comity considerations because the couple's residence in Vermont and their intent to remain in this state rendered Vermont's laws most applicable to thedivorce proceeding. It rejected wife's lex loci argument as well because it did not identify any authority for invoking the doctrine to prevent the dissolution of a marriage, rather than to validate one, and because wife's approach would preclude state courts in the United States from asserting jurisdiction over foreign executed marriages. Finally, the court rejected wife's equitable estoppel argument because she was not "ignorant of the facts of husband's intent to file for divorce." In April 2017, the court issued a final order and decree for the no-fault divorce. At the same time, the court dismissed wife's claim for separate statutory maintenance because of her failure to prosecute her claim.³

¶ 9. On appeal, wife raises the same challenges to the court's jurisdiction in the divorce action as below. For the reasons set forth below, we conclude that husband's nonimmigration residency status is not a legal barrier to domicile, and that the trial court appropriately granted the divorce.

I. Husband's Residency

¶ 10. We review the legal analysis underlying the trial court's denial of a motion to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction without deference, and its factual findings for clear error. Gosbee v. Gosbee, 2015 VT 82, ¶ 18, 199 Vt. 480, 125 A.3d 514; Conley v. Crisafulli, 2010 VT 38, ¶ 3, 188 Vt. 11, 999 A.2d 677.

¶ 11. Vermont law includes a residency requirement that is a prerequisite to the court's subject matter jurisdiction over the dissolution of a marriage:

A complaint for divorce or annulment of civil marriage may be brought if either party to the marriage has resided within the Statefor a period of six months or more, but a divorce shall not be decreed for any cause, unless the plaintiff or the defendant has resided in the State one year next preceding the date of final hearing. Temporary absence from the State because of illness, employment without the State, service as a member of the Armed Forces of the United States, or other legitimate and bona fide cause shall not affect the six months' period or the one-year period specified in the preceding sentence, provided the person has otherwise retained residence in this State.

15 V.S.A. § 592(a). Thus, for our family courts to have jurisdiction over a divorce action, one of the parties must be a resident of Vermont for at least six months preceding the complaint.

¶ 12. "Residence" in § 592(a) is synonymous with domicile. See Gosbee, 2015 VT 82, ¶ 20; Conley, 2010 VT 38, ¶ 5. Domicile requires "residence and continued dwelling, coupled with an intention of remaining [in Vermont] indefinitely"—a "mere presence within the state" is not sufficient. Conley, 2010 VT 38, ¶¶ 5-6 (quotation omitted); see also Walker v. Walker, 124 Vt. 172, 174, 200 A.2d 267, 269 (1964) ("Neither residence alone, nor intention, without more, is enough."). To gain a new domicile, one must have the intent to abandon his or her previous domicile. Conley, 2010 VT 38, ¶ 6. A change in domicile, however, can be effective "even if the person has a nebulous or floating intention of returning at some future time." Gosbee, 2015 VT 82, ¶ 20 (quotation omitted). This is because a finding of domicile requires evidence that a party intends to remain in the state indefinitely, not necessarily permanently. Id. ¶ 23. We have defined "indefiniteness" in this context as " '[w]ithout definition or limitation to a particular thing, case, time, etc.' " Id. (quoting 7 Oxford English Dictionary 842 (2d ed. 1989) (alteration in original)).

¶ 13. Applying these principles, we conclude that, aside from the question of husband's nonimmigrant alien status, the record amply supports the trial court's conclusion that husband is a Vermont domiciliary. We reject wife's contention that husband's status nevertheless undermines this conclusion as a matter of law. Whether we view husband's status as minimally relevant, as some courts have done, or require that in the face of that status he demonstrate some affirmativesteps to establish permanent residence or citizenship, as at least one court has done, the record supports the trial court's conclusion that husband has proven domicile in this case. Husband has not only expressed a desire to remain in Vermont indefinitely notwithstanding the durational limits on his visa at the time he came to the state, he has also taken substantial and effective steps toward changing his status. Wife's arguments to the contrary are not persuasive.

¶ 14. The trial court's findings support its conclusion that husband lives in Vermont and has an intention to remain here indefinitely. In addition to relying on...