Facts
- Alice B. McCown and Malcolm S. McCown married in 1927.
- During the marriage, Malcolm allegedly owned real property in the Yukon Territory, Canada.
- Alice claimed that Yukon dower law gave her an inchoate dower interest that would entitle her to a one-third life-estate-type share.
- Malcolm obtained a Nevada divorce on substituted service while Alice was in California.
- Malcolm later sold the Yukon land and died in 1941 as a Nevada resident; the sale proceeds allegedly became part of his Nevada estate.
- After the estate administrator rejected her claim, Alice sued the administrator seeking a money judgment measured by the value of her alleged dower interest in the Yukon land/proceeds.
- Alice’s complaint did not set out the text or substance of the foreign (Yukon/Canadian/English) law that allegedly created and defined the claimed dower right.
- The district court overruled the administrator’s demurrer; the administrator did not answer; default and default judgment were entered for Alice.
Issues
- Whether a complaint that seeks relief based on a right created by foreign law states a cause of action when it fails to plead the substance of that foreign law.
- Whether a default judgment may stand when the underlying complaint is legally insufficient because it does not adequately plead the foreign law essential to the claim.
Decision
- The Nevada Supreme Court reversed the order overruling the demurrer and reversed the default judgment.
- The court held the complaint was insufficient because it did not properly plead the foreign law on which the asserted dower-based claim depended.
- The case was remanded with directions consistent with sustaining the demurrer.
Legal Principles
- Foreign law is treated as a matter that must be pleaded and proved; it is not accepted as domestic law by default.
- A pleading relying on foreign law must allege the substance of the relevant foreign statutes or rules; conclusory assertions about what foreign law “provides” are inadequate.
- A default admits only well-pleaded factual allegations; it does not cure a complaint’s failure to state a cause of action or supply missing legal elements.
Conclusion
Because the plaintiff’s claim depended on foreign dower law and the complaint alleged only conclusions rather than the substance of that law, it failed to state a cause of action; the demurrer should have been sustained, and the resulting default judgment was reversed.