Heuer v. Heuer

SHENK, J.

The plaintiff commenced an action to set aside conveyances of community real and personal property made by the defendant Henry Heuer to his brothers, the defendants Clarence and James Heuer. Total success in the purpose of the action depended primarily on the invalidity of a decree

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of divorce from the plaintiff obtained by the defendant Henry Heuer on October 25, 1945, in the State of Nevada. The trial court found that the Nevada decree was invalid because of jurisdictional defects, that defendant Henry Heuer and Georgia Heuer, the plaintiff, were husband and wife, that the conveyances were not consented to by the plaintiff and were without valuable consideration. Judgment setting aside the conveyances followed. The defendants prosecuted this appeal. The word “defendant” hereinafter refers to defendant Henry Heuer.

The plaintiff and the defendant were married in October, 1911, and lived in San Joaquin County. They accumulated several parcels of real property and some personalty. The record indicates that the marriage was not a happy one, and that constant discord affected the defendant’s health. In September, 1944, he filed a complaint for divorce in the county of their residence. That action was dismissed when the parties executed a reconciliation agreement which, however, was not carried into effect. On June 11, 1945, the defendant drove to Nevada with a house trailer in which he had been living. He stopped at an auto trailer court near Reno and took his meals with his brother Clarence who resided in Reno. He obtained a job in the vicinity at his trade as a carpenter. On July 24, 1945, he commenced an action for divorce from the plaintiff in Washoe County, Nevada. Shortly thereafter the plaintiff went to Nevada apparently with some concern about the condition of the defendant’s health. She was served with summons and complaint in the divorce action while in Nevada. She engaged an attorney and filed an answer and a cross-complaint for separate maintenance. The answer tendered the issue of the jurisdictional requirements of residence. The Nevada court’s findings recite that evidence was “introduced on behalf of both parties,” and the findings and decree state the requisite jurisdictional facts of residence. The findings also show that “pursuant to stipulation between plaintiff and defendant entered into in open Court, the plaintiff shall pay to defendant toward her support and maintenance, the sum of” $2,500 at the rate of $35 per month; further that “counsel for plaintiff and defendant stipulated in open Court that ‘all of the issues raised by the pleadings are adjudicated by the granting of a decree to plaintiff, if the Court should grant a decree to plaintiff. . . .’ ” The decree granting a divorce to the husband embodied the support provision for the benefit of the wife, but made no disposition