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Jurisdiction

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Personal Jurisdiction over Nonresident Spouse.  The parties were married and lived briefly in New Jersey, moved to Massachusetts for ten (10) years and then to Arizona for fifteen (15) years when, for health reasons, the wife moved back to Massachusetts with the four (4) children born of the marriage.  The wife filed a complaint for divorce in Massachusetts in 2005 and the husband, an Arizona resident, filed a motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction in the Probate and Family Court. The trial judge found that the cause of divorce occurred in Massachusetts based, in part, on conversations that the parties had in the state.  The husband had argued that the cause of action took place in Arizona when the wife moved to Massachusetts.  The trial judge reported to the Appeals Court the question of whether Massachusetts had personal jurisdiction over the husband.
 
Construing c.223A, s.3(g), the SJC found that its requirements were satisfied and held that the husband and wife are not required to be domiciled in Massachusetts at the time that the cause for divorce occurred.  Here, applying the second part of 3(g), the SJC found it was sufficient that the husband committed an act in Massachusetts — a conversation — that caused the marital breakdown.  The SJC, further, rejected the husband’s argument that the trial judge improperly relied on interspousal conversations which were subject to the marital disqualification set forth in c.233 s.20, finding that because he did not object to them when they were introduced, they were properly admitted. Miller v. Miller, 448 Mass. 320 (February 9, 2007)