Rivera v. Rivera

• Decision Date: 13 October 2010
• Docket Number: No. 29,511.,29,511.
• Citation: 243 P.3d 1148,149 N.M. 66,2010 -NMCA- 106
• Parties: Heidi Caroline Barton RIVERA, Petitioner-Appellee, v. Jaime RIVERA, Respondent-Appellant.
• Court: Court of Appeals of New Mexico

243 P.3d 1148
149 N.M. 66
2010 -NMCA- 106

Heidi Caroline Barton RIVERA, Petitioner-Appellee,
v.
Jaime RIVERA, Respondent-Appellant.

No. 29,511.

Court of Appeals of New Mexico.

Aug. 13, 2010.
Certiorari Denied, Oct. 13, 2010, No. 32,601.

243 P.3d 1149

Max Houston Proctor, Hobbs, NM, for Appellee.

Reagan & Sanchez, P.A., Mark Terrence Sanchez, Hobbs, NM, for Appellant.

OPINION

FRY, Chief Judge.

{1} This appeal stems from divorce proceedings initiated in 2008 by Wife, Heidi Rivera, against Husband, Jaime Rivera. Prior to trial, Wife filed a motion to dismiss the case for lack of jurisdiction, arguing that the marriage was void due to the fact that the parties were married in New Mexico but had only a Texas marriage license. The district court agreed and dismissed the divorce proceedings. Prior to the dismissal, Husband had sought to invalidate a premarital agreement he signed shortly before the wedding on the ground that the agreement was unconscionable due to the terms of the agreement and his inability to understand what he was agreeing to. In its dismissal order, the district court noted that if the marriage had been valid, the court would have ruled that the premarital agreement was valid and enforceable. Husband appeals the district court's dismissal of the divorce proceedings and its conclusion that the premarital agreement was enforceable. For the following reasons, we reverse the judgment of the district court.

BACKGROUND

{2} Husband and Wife met while Wife was on vacation in Mexico where Husband resided. A romantic relationship ensued, and Husband and Wife dated for over a year. The parties decided to get married, and Husband moved to the United States to marry Wife. A few days prior to the wedding, Husband and Wife went to Wife's attorney's office in Hobbs, New Mexico, to sign a prenuptial agreement that Wife had asked her attorney to prepare. According to Husband, he was under the impression that the agreement was a formality required for the marriage, and he did not understand English well enough to know exactly what he was signing. The district court's uncontested findings, however, indicate that Husband declined an offer to have the document interpreted.

{3} On February 14, 2000, Husband and Wife were married during a ceremony before the Reverend Jothen Kinney in Hobbs. Prior to the ceremony, the parties had obtained a marriage license from the Gaines County clerk's office in Seminole, Texas, which is located approximately thirty miles from Hobbs. The marriage license issued to the parties granted "authoriz[ation] to solemnize the rites of matrimony between Mr. Jaime Armando Rivera and Miss Heidi Caroline Barton" to "any person authorized by the laws of the state of Texas to celebrate the rites of matrimony in the state of Texas." The parties took this license to Rev. Kinney, who was authorized to perform marriage ceremonies in both New Mexico and Texas, and who performed the marriage ceremony and filled out the information required on the license. Under the "county of marriage" section, "Lea" was written in, "Texas" was crossed out, and "New Mexico" was written in its place. The license was then returned to the Gaines County clerk, who accepted the returned license and recorded it in the county records on March 17, 2000.

{4} Following the marriage, the couple resided in Hobbs and had two children. In April 2008, after eight years of marriage, Wife filed a petition for dissolution of marriage,

243 P.3d 1150

citing incompatibility between herself and Husband. In November 2008, despite having filed numerous pleadings presuming the validity of the marriage, Wife filed a motion to dismiss her petition, arguing that the district court lacked jurisdiction. Wife contended that her petition was premised on her belief that the parties were lawfully married in the State of New Mexico when in fact the parties were not lawfully married in New Mexico. Wife argued that she and Husband had failed to obtain a marriage license and medical certificate as required by New Mexico law and that their marriage was therefore invalid. Wife noted that while she had obtained and recorded a marriage license in Texas, she had not met Texas' statutory requirements for a valid marriage because she did not have a ceremony in Texas. Wife also contended that the ceremony in New Mexico was invalid because the pastor who officiated had no authority to perform the marriage ceremony in New Mexico without a valid New Mexico marriage license.

{5} The district court agreed with Wife and found that it did not have jurisdiction over the parties' divorce. Specifically, the court found that "the parties celebrated a marriage ceremony in the State of New Mexico that was never authorized by the laws of New Mexico" and that the marriage was therefore invalid. The court concluded that "the laws of Texas are irrelevant to any decision necessary to a resolution of th[e] matter." The court explained that New Mexico law requires couples desiring to marry to obtain a license in New Mexico and present the license to the person officiating at the ceremony and that without a valid license, the marriage ceremony has no legal effect. Based on this conclusion, the district court dismissed the divorce action. Because Husband had also contested the validity of the premarital agreement, the court concluded that "[i]f the marriage had been valid, the prenuptial agreement would have likewise been valid and enforceable." Husband appeals the district court's dismissal of the divorce proceedings and its conclusion that the premarital agreement was valid.

DISCUSSION

Standard of Review

{6} The facts in this case are generally undisputed. At issue is whether a marriage performed in New Mexico without a New Mexico license is valid. Because this involves a question of law, we review the district court's conclusions of law de novo. Jacob v. Spurlin, 1999-NMCA-049, ¶ 7, 127 N.M. 127, 978 P.2d 334.

Choice of Law

{7} Because the marriage was celebrated in New Mexico but licensed in Texas, we briefly address the conflict-of-law issue that this case appears to present. According to Texas law, the "validity of a marriage is generally determined by the law of the place where it is celebrated." Husband v. Pierce, 800 S.W.2d 661, 663 (Tex.App.1990). New Mexico, like Texas, "applies the rule of comity, that the law of the place of contract governs the validity of a marriage." In re Bivians' Estate, 98 N.M. 722, 726, 652 P.2d 744, 748 (Ct.App.1982). Because the place of the marriage ceremony is the place of the contract, see Restatement (First) of Conflict of Laws § 121 comment c (1934) (explaining that "[t]he contract of marriage comprises any form of mutual consent from a formal ceremony to a mere exchange of written or oral promises, which may be required by the law of the place where the ceremony takes place"), and because the marriage ceremony was performed in New Mexico, New Mexico law governs the validity of Husband's and Wife's marriage whether we look at Texas' or New Mexico's choice-of-law laws. We thus address whether the marriage was valid under New Mexico's substantive law.

The Marriage Was Valid Even Though No New Mexico License Was Obtained

{8} Our Supreme Court has stated that "[f]or a marriage to be valid, it must be formally entered into by contract and solemnized before an appropriate official." Merrill v. Davis, 100 N.M. 552, 553, 673 P.2d 1285, 1286 (1983). The purpose of the requirements that a marriage be formal and solemnized are based on our State's rejection of common law marriage and the need to

243 P.3d 1151

avoid "the possibility of fraud arising from claims of common [ ] law marriage." Id. (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). Because New Mexico does not recognize common law marriage, something more than mere cohabitation and reputation as husband and wife is required to create a valid marriage in this state. See In re Bivians' Estate, 98 N.M. at 726, 652 P.2d at 748.

{9} Thus, our case law requires that for a New Mexico marriage to be valid, it must be solemnized before an appropriate official and be formally entered into by contract. While this Court has noted on a number of occasions that "[m]arriage is a civil contract requiring a license," see, e.g., State v. Lard, 86 N.M. 71, 74, 519 P.2d 307, 310 (Ct.App.1974) (internal quotation marks omitted), and In re Bivians' Estate, 98 N.M. at 726, 652 P.2d at 748, and that a marriage "is also a contract in which the public is interested and to which the state is a party," id., we have never directly addressed the issue of whether a couple who has a marriage ceremony but fails to obtain a New Mexico license has a valid marriage.

{10} NMSA 1978, Section 40-1-10 (1973) provides that "[e]ach couple desiring to marry in New Mexico shall obtain a license from a county clerk and file the same for recording in the county issuing the license, following the marriage ceremony." In addition to the requirement that the couple desiring to be married obtain a license, NMSA 1978, Section 40-1-14 (1905), provides that "[a]ll persons authorized to solemnize marriage shall require the parties contemplating marriage to produce a license signed and sealed by the county clerk authorizing said marriage." After the completion of the marriage ceremony, the "person[ ] performing the marriage ceremony" has "the duty ......