Gloria M. Stark - Page 8




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               In effect, having failed to achieve satisfaction in her                
          numerous appeals to the Michigan Supreme Court, petitioner seeks            
          to relitigate her domestic relations dispute here.  We decline to           
          inject ourselves into this Michigan domestic relations dispute.             
               Marital relationships are peculiarly creatures of State law.           
          Lee v. Commissioner, 64 T.C. 552, 558 (1975), affd. per curiam              
          550 F.2d 1201 (9th Cir. 1977); see also Overman v. United States,           
          563 F.2d 1287, 1290 (8th Cir. 1977); Eccles v. Commissioner, 19             
          T.C. 1049, 1051 (1953), affd. per curiam 208 F.2d 796 (4th Cir.             
          1953).                                                                      
               Petitioner’s divorce judgment was entered in Midland County,           
          Michigan, on September 8, 1987.  Although petitioner has                    
          contested the validity of the divorce judgment, no State court              
          has overturned it.  To the contrary, between 1988 and 1992, the             
          Michigan Supreme Court rejected petitioner’s several appeals                
          relating to her divorce.3  Principles of collateral estoppel and            
          full faith and credit counsel that we respect the State court               
          judgments.  See Calhoun v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1992-246                
          (declining to decide whether a New York divorce judgment was                
          invalid as violative of due process where no New York appellate             
          court had overturned, reversed, or otherwise modified the divorce           




               3 Notably, in Stark v. Midland Circuit Judge, 435 Mich. 877            
          (1990), the Michigan Supreme Court denied petitioner’s motion to            
          “disqualify a party.”                                                       




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