Divorce Jurisdiction -- Overseas Spouse -- Service --Hague Convention
A man's certified mail service of the divorce complaint he had filed in Ohio upon his wife in Germany was not in accord with the Hague Convention on Service of Process Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil or Commercial Matters, and thus the divorce court lacked personal jurisdiction over her, the Ohio Court of Appeals, held in Collins v. Collins, Ohio Ct. App., No. C-040649, 1/20/06.
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The Court explained that under the terms of the Convention, registered mail is an insufficient means of serving process on citizens of signatory nations, including Germany, which he noted has specifically objected to service by international mail and has asserted that the Hague Convention is the exclusive method for international service of process within its borders. Stressing that in order to determine financial issues, a divorce court must have personal jurisdiction based upon notice and proper service, the court thus reversed the provisions of the divorce decree addressing spousal support and property division.
However, the trial court did have authority to enter a decree terminating the couple's marriage as a judgment in rem. Explaining that marital status follows the domiciles of the spouses, Doan said that for a divorce court to have jurisdiction over the res--or marriage--all that was required was that one of the spouses be domiciled within the state granting the divorce. Since the husband was domiciled in Ohio, the divorce court had jurisdiction to terminate the marriage, Doan concluded, ruling that the wife was not entitled to relief from judgment as to the granting of the divorce.
