DENCY PARKER
v.
JOHN H. PARKER
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Dency Parker sought separate maintenance from her husband John H. Parker, who claimed a Cuban divorce should bar her claim. The Florida Supreme Court reversed, holding that the Cuban divorce should not be recognized because it was obtained through fraud and without proper service or opportunity for a fair trial.
The Cuban divorce should not be recognized in Florida. A judgment of a foreign country will not be recognized unless the defendant had opportunity for a fair trial after proper service or voluntary appearance, the court system likely to secure impartial administration of justice, and there is no showing of prejudice or fraud in procuring the judgment. These prerequisites were absent here.
“Good faith and due process is the very bed rock on which our system of jurisprudence is constructed. Not one semblance of that was observed in procuring the Cuban divorce.”
Establishes the fundamental principle that the court will not recognize a foreign divorce obtained fraudulently and without due process.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceThe parties married in Cuba in January 1940. In September 1940, Dency came to the U.S. to visit family, and John sent her remittances. In June 1941, J…
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Dency Parker sued her husband John H. Parker for separate maintenance. The defendant, John H. Parker, tendered a divorce decree granted him in Cuba and a decree of a Cuban court dismissing complainant’s suit to set aside the Cuban divorce as a defense. It is contended that if said decrees are given force and effect in Florida, they will set at rest the claim for separate maintenance.
The parties were married in Havana, Cuba, in January, 1940, and were citizens of this country at that time. They were residents of Cuba at the time the divorce litigation was in progress. In September, 1940, by agreement of the parties, Dency Parker came to this country to visit her people. John H. Parker sent her regular remittances from the time she left Cuba until September, 1941. In June, 1941, he (John H. Parker) brought suit for divorce on the ground of voluntary and continuous desertion for six months, such being ground for divorce in Cuba. He alleged that he did not know her domicile so he had her served by publication. She received no notice of the divorce suit though he (John H. Parker) knew where she was and sent her remittances while the divorce suit was pending.
The final decree of divorce was entered in Cuba September 3, 1941. The defendant (appellant here) returned to Cuba late in September and received the first tidings of the divorce decree. In December, 1941, she brought suit in Cuba to' set *637aside the divorce decree and to punish her husband for his criminal conduct. This suit appears to have been dismissed because under the law of Cuba a wife is not permitted to bring a penal action against the husband except for offenses against her person. The Cuban court dismissed the entire proceeding notwithstanding the fraud perpetrated in procuring the divorce.
The chancellor held that the Cuban divorce should be recognized in Florida because the parties were residents of Cbua when it was secured, that the divorce decree and the decree refusing to set it aside were regular under the law of Cuba and that the parties were charged with the knowledge of the law of Cuba.
In this state of facts, the only question with which we are confronted is whether or not the chancellor erred in recognizing the Cuban divorce as a defense to the suit for separate maintenance.
We think this question must be given an affirmative answer. Good faith and due process is the very bed rock on which our system of jurisprudence is constructed. Not one semblance of that was observed in procuring the Cuban divorce. The full faith anti credit clause of the Federal Constitution has no application to judgments of a foreign country, they being restricted solely to judgments of the States. Aetna Life Ins. Co. v. Tremblay, 223 U. S. 185, 32 Sup. Ct. 309, 56 L. Ed. 398; Warren v. Warren, 73 Fla. 764, 75 So. 35.
In the last cited case, we held that the judgment of a foreign country would not be recognized unless opportunity had been given for a fair trial after service or voluntary appearance of the defendant, under a system of jurisprudence likely to secure an impartial administration of justice between citizens of its own country and those of other countries, there being no showing of prejudice in the court or in the system of laws under which it is sitting or fraud in procuring the judgment.
The decision of the Cuban court refusing to annul the decree of divorce was not based on fraud in its procurement and should not be recognized here because the prerequisites in the preceding paragraph were absent.
*638From this, it follows that the judgment appealed from must be and is hereby reversed.
Reversed.
CHAPMAN, C. J., BUFORD and ADAMS, JJ., concur.
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Pawley v. Pawley, 46 So.2d 464 (Fla. 1950)…n this state that if one would actuate the doctrine of judicial comity, the foreign judgment relied on must partake of the elements that would support it if procured in this country. See Ogden v. Ogden, 159 Fla. 604, 33 So. 2d 870; Parker v. Parker, 155 Fla. 635, 21 So. 2d 141; and Warren v. Warren, 73 Fla. 764, 75 So. 35, L.R.A. 1917E, 490, in which this question is discussed. Now let us examine the Cuban divorce and see if it meets the test of good faith, residence requirements, due process and justice t…
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Ogden v. Clement Moore Ogden, 159 Fla. 604 (Fla. 1947)…nized and enforced in this state under the law of international comity. To actuate the doctrine of judicial comity or reciprocity, the foreign judgment must partake of the elements that would support it if procured in this country. Parker v. Parker, 155 Fla. 635, 21 So. (2nd) 141. If this is a correct statement of the law of England, a judgment secured thereby is charged with deficiencies that would lift it out of the class rigidly entitled to international reciprocity. In other words, if the question of de…
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Augusto Suarez Ortega v. de Suarez, 465 So. 2d 607 (Fla. 3d DCA 1985)…on the whereabouts of the wife and the child, that they were in Florida and not in Mexico. Therefore the provisional order of custody was procured fraudulently and was not entitled to be enforced by the courts of this state. Parker v. Parker, (1945) 155 Fla. 635, 21 So. 2d 141, cert den. 326 U.S. 718, 66 S.Ct. 23, 90 L.Ed. 425 (1945). Turning next to the order of temporary support, the husband waived any jurisdiction defects by seeking affirmative relief in the trial court proceeding by his petition for ha…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceAuthorities Cited
- Warren v. Warren, 73 Fla. 764 (Fla. 1917)
- Simon v. Simon, 73 Fla. 919 (Fla. 1917)
- Ætna Life Ins. Co. v. Tremblay, 223 U.S. 185 (U.S. 1912)