## Facts

- A married couple acquired a tract of real property in Nebraska and later moved to Washington while retaining the Nebraska land.
- In a Washington divorce action, the spouses disputed whether the Nebraska land was separate or community property.
- The Washington court granted a divorce and awarded the Nebraska land to the wife, ordering the husband to execute a deed conveying the Nebraska tract to her.
- After the husband refused to convey, the Washington court appointed a commissioner who executed a deed to the wife pursuant to the decree.
- The husband later executed a deed conveying the same Nebraska land to a third party; additional parties acquired interests through that chain of title.
- The wife filed a quiet-title action in Nebraska relying on the Washington decree and the commissioner’s deed.
- The Nebraska Supreme Court ultimately held that the Washington decree and commissioner’s deed could not transfer title to Nebraska land and entered judgment for the later grantees.
- The wife sought review, arguing that the Full Faith and Credit Clause required Nebraska to recognize the decree and commissioner’s deed as passing title.

## Issues

1. Whether the Full Faith and Credit Clause requires the situs state to treat a sister-state equity decree and commissioner’s deed as directly transferring title to real property located in the situs state.
2. Whether a court lacking jurisdiction over out-of-state land can, through its decree or a judicially executed deed, affect title to that land beyond its territorial jurisdiction.

## Decision

- The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the Nebraska judgment for the later grantees.
- The Court held that a court of equity may act in personam to compel a party within its jurisdiction to convey out-of-state land, but the decree itself and a commissioner’s deed executed under it do not, by their own force, transfer title to land located in another state.
- Nebraska did not deny full faith and credit by refusing to give the Washington decree and commissioner’s deed in rem effect on Nebraska real property.

## Legal Principles

- Only the courts of the state where land is located have authority to determine or transfer title to that land by a judgment operating on the property itself.
- An equity court may order a defendant subject to its personal jurisdiction to execute a conveyance of land in another state and may enforce that personal obligation through its coercive powers.
- The Full Faith and Credit Clause makes a sister-state judgment conclusive on the merits of the parties’ personal rights and obligations, but it does not extend a court’s jurisdiction to property located in another state.
- State statutes giving local effect to decrees or judicial deeds as conveyances operate only within the state’s territory and cannot compel another state to treat such instruments as transferring title to local land.

## Conclusion

A sister-state divorce decree awarding out-of-state land, and a commissioner’s deed executed under that decree, cannot directly transfer title to real property located in another state; full faith and credit requires respect for the personal adjudication between the parties but not in rem effect on the situs state’s land titles.


Fall v. Eastin, 215 U.S. 1 (1909)