Barber v. Barber ex rel. Cronkhite

Summary

The Supreme Court considered whether a wife divorced from bed and board could establish a separate domicile and sue her husband in federal equity to enforce a New York decree awarding alimony. The Court held that a valid alimony decree is a judicial debt of record that may be carried into judgment and enforced in another state or federal court when jurisdictional requirements are satisfied. The Court also recognized federal equity jurisdiction to prevent the decree from being defeated by the husband's flight or fraud.

Holdings

1. A wife living under a judicial sentence of separation from bed and board may establish a domicile different from that of her husband and may qualify as a citizen of a different state for purposes of suing him in federal court.
2. A federal court of equity may enforce a valid state-court decree awarding alimony that is already due; it may not originate a divorce or award alimony in the first instance.
3. A subsequent divorce a vinculo obtained in Wisconsin did not release Hiram from liability for alimony already decreed by the New York court.
4. A wife under a judicial separation from bed and board may sue her husband for previously decreed alimony in equity through a next friend.

Questions Presented

1. Whether a wife divorced from bed and board may acquire a domicile separate from her husband's domicile for purposes of federal diversity jurisdiction.
2. Whether a federal court of equity may enforce a state-court decree awarding alimony when the decree was entered by a court with jurisdiction over the parties and subject matter and the husband has removed himself from the issuing state's jurisdiction.
3. Whether the husband's subsequent Wisconsin divorce relieved him of liability for alimony already decreed by the New York court.
4. Whether the wife could sue her husband in federal equity by her next friend.

Disposition

affirmed