Raynor v. Stockton Savings & Loan Bank

California Court of Appeal Dec 5, 1958 No. Civ. No. 9428Published

Before: Warne

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Holding. The court held that a Nevada divorce decree obtained by the decedent was entitled to full faith and credit, barring the appellant from collaterally attacking it, because she had entered a general appearance in the proceedings and failed to prove her signature was obtained through fraud. Consequently, the appellant was not the decedent's surviving spouse and lacked standing to claim as an heir.

Issues

Whether a Nevada divorce decree is entitled to full faith and credit when the defendant signed an appearance and waiver prior to the filing of the complaint.
Whether the trial court erred in finding that the appellant knowingly and voluntarily signed the appearance and waiver.
Whether the trial court acted beyond its jurisdiction in determining the appellant's status as an heir during a contest for letters of administration.

Disposition. affirmed

Quotations verified verbatim against the opinion

“the requirements of full faith and credit bar a defendant from collaterally attacking a divorce decree on jurisdictional grounds in the courts of a sister State where there has been participation by the defendant in the divorce proceedings”

“the trial court was correct in giving full faith and credit to the Nevada decree.”

“In deciding the divorce was valid, the trial court necessarily passed on the question whether Kay could inherit Cal’s estate, and once the court decided the divorce was valid it determined Kay was not an heir.”

WARNE, J. pro tem.* This is an appeal from an order appointing Stockton Savings and Loan Bank, the nominee of Cora Raynor, administrator of the estate of Clayton Ashley Raynor, deceased.

The actual contest in this matter is between two women, Kay Raynor, hereinafter referred to as Kay, and Cora Raynor, hereinafter referred to as Cora, each of whom claims to be the surviving, spouse of the decedent, hereinafter referred to as Cal. Each sought letters of administration.

Cal and Cora were married in 1927 and 18 years later on June 4, 1946, Cal obtained a divorce from Cora in Nevada. The following day, June 5, 1946, Cal married Kay in Nevada and they then drove to California where on June 20th Cal entered into a contract to purchase an apartment house in Tracy. The purchase of the apartment house was completed on July 6, 1946. On June 21, 1946, Cal returned to Nevada, where on June 27, 1946, just 22 days after marrying Kay, he obtained a Nevada judgment of divorce from her. He then returned to California and continued to live with Kay, whom he held out as his wife until his death, although he remarried Cora on November 30, 1946, which according to Kay was unknown to her. This latter marriage was never dissolved. Kay contends that the Nevada judgment of divorce dissolving her marriage to Cal was invalid.

A few days after Cal returned to Nevada, Kay received a letter from Cal’s attorney enclosing a document entitled “Appearance and Waiver,” which was later filed in the divorce action. The document, after reciting the title of the court and the cause, reads:

[717]“Appearance and Waiver

‘ ‘ The undersigned, named as defendant in the above entitled action, hereby consents that when a complaint is filed by the above named plaintiff seeking an absolute divorce from the undersigned in the above named Court, this instrument will constitute an appearance in that action by the undersigned, and that the undersigned does hereby submit herself to the jurisdiction of the Sixth Judicial District Court of the State of Nevada, in and for the County of Humboldt.

“Said defendant hereby waives all time to demur, answer or otherwise plead in any such action ...”

This document was signed and acknowledged by Kay before a notary public in Stockton, California, and then mailed to Cal’s attorney. It was filed in the divorce proceedings.

Raynor v. Stockton Savings & Loan Bank

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