Domicile For Divorce: Residence In A Mobile Society
Let us suppose that a husband and wife have two homes. The big house is in Germantown and the little house is in Sardis. A disagreement erupts and wife moves into the house at Sardis while husband rents a house at Moon Lake, AR. Both parties still call the big house home with the eventual intent to return there but a suit for divorce is filed in Arkansas. The legal issue is which state has jurisdiction (legal authority) to grant the divorce?
Judicial power to grant a divorce is based on domicile. Tennessee courts have no divorce jurisdiction unless one of the parties is domiciled here. Residency under Tennessee Code Annotated 36-4-104 is treated as domicile. Domicile is defined as the place where a person has his principal home and place of enjoyment of his fortunes; which he does not expect to leave, except for a purpose; from which when absent, he seems to himself a wayfarer; to which when he returns, he ceases to travel.
A person may have two or more residences but only one domicile.Snodgrass v. Snodgrass A temporary residence in a state for the purpose of getting a divorce will not confer jurisdiction upon the courts of that state to render a decree for divorce that will be binding upon the courts of the state of actual residence of the party.
Domicile of choice is acquired by physical presence plus intent to remain.
The plaintiff wife may acquire a separate domicile by withdrawing from the defendant husband.If the plaintiff leaves because of the defendant's fault and takes the children or if the plaintiff is awarded custody, the domicile of the children will follow that of the plaintiff.
A domicile once acquired is not lost until a new one is established. If custody is awarded to one other than a parent, the domicile of a child will follow the person having custody. Based upon all of the above, even though both parties are physically absent from Tennessee, the only state with immediate jurisdiction to grant a divorce would be Tennessee. However, if by conduct and the passage of time the parties were to manifest a different "wayfarer intent" the result might differ.
