Mahlon Pitney

“ But in order to make a divorce valid, even when granted by the courts of the state of the matrimonial domicil, there must be notice to the defendant, either by service of process, or (if the defendant be a nonresident) by such publication or other constructive notice as is required by the law of the state. ”

“ An order of publication having been made and published, the Virginia court, on October 19, 1907, made a decree granting to the husband a divorce a mensa et thoro. He thereafter, on being served as already mentioned with process in the wife's suit, filed a plea setting up the Virginia decree and the proceedings upon which it was rendered, as a bar to her action. ”

“ The material fact upon which, according to the laws of that state, the jurisdiction of the Virginia court depended, was the nonresidence of the defendant. The Code required (§ 3230) that this fact should appear by affidavit. The affidavit in question set forth the fact; the circumstance that it was averred on information and belief affected merely the degree of proof. ”

“ The statutory maintenance is thus assimilated to alimony, in that it is subject to be modified from time to time or even cut off entirely, in the event of a change in the circumstances of the parties; and it of course ceases wholly upon the death of the husband. ”

“ The record of the Virginia proceedings shows that on September 3, 1907, in the clerk's office of the circuit court of Loudoun county, 'the said Charles N. Thompson filed an affidavit setting forth that the said Jessie E. Thompson was not a resident of the state of Virginia, said affidavit to be used as basis for an order of publication against the said Jessie E. Thompson, . . . ”

“ Upon the filing of the bill a subpoena to answer was issued and returned 'not found,' whereupon alias and pluries writs were successively issued and returned until November 18, 1907, when the husband was served with process. ”