Means v. Means

BARNARD, P. J.

This is an appeal from a decree of annulment.

On March 9, 1933, the plaintiff was granted a judgment of divorce from her then husband in the State of Wisconsin. Shortly thereafter she came to San Diego to live with her mother. On December 31, 1933, she and the defendant went to Arizona where a marriage ceremony was performed after which they returned to San Diego, where they have since resided. In May, 1939, the plaintiff filed an action for divorce against the defendant and he filed an answer and a cross-complaint, through which he sought to have this Arizona marriage annulled. After a trial the court found that plaintiff’s previous marriage had not been dissolved at the time of her marriage to the defendant and a judgment and decree was entered annulling the latter marriage, from which judgment the plaintiff has appealed.

The question presented is as to the effect of the judgment procured by the appellant in Wisconsin. The appellant thus states the question: “Did the judgment of divorce . . . completely dissolve the marriage relation existing between the parties?” That judgment read, in part, as follows:

“ It is hereby ordered, adjudged and decreed that the bonds of matrimony heretofore subsisting between the plaintiff and the defendant be and the same are hereby dissolved, and the parties forever freed from the obligations thereof;

“Provided, however, that this Judgment in so far as it determines the status of the parties hereto, shall be effective only in accordance with the provisions which the Wisconsin Statutes in such cases made and provided, and

“Provided, further that neither of the parties hereto, shall be competent to marry until one (1) year from and after the date of entry of this Judgment.”

The appellant contends that the entry of this decree completely severed and dissolved the marriage relation existing between the parties to that action; that the reference in the decree to the provisions of other Wisconsin statutes is a refer

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ence to section 245.04 of the revised statutes of that state which provides that if any person residing and intending 'to continue to reside in that state goes into another state or country and contracts a marriage which is prohibited and declared void by the laws of Wisconsin such marriage shall be null and void in that state; and that the provision in the decree that neither of the parties should be competent to marry within one year has no extra-territorial effect.