Turner v. Turner
Turner v. Turner
Opinion of the Court
Opinion op the Court by
Affirming.
Appellant and defendant below, Boy Turner, and tbe appellee and plaintiff below, Lou Turner, were married on April 25, 1921, in Butler county, Kentucky. It was tbe second venture for each of tbe parties on tbe matrimonial bark, altbougb tbey were yet comparatively young in years. They each bad children by their first marriage and plaintiff since tbe death of her first bus-band bad lived with her father-in-law, a Mr. Anderson, with whom also resided a bachelor son, Yeacbel Anderson, a brother-in-law of plaintiff, and who was about forty years of age. Plaintiff obtained from tbe estate of her first husband about $700.00 in personal property, which she bad at tbe time of her marriage to defendant. After tbe marriage she moved but a short distance away to the home of her newly acquired husband carrying with her, of course, her infant children. So far as the proof shows, she presided over the household of her
Before cashing the check, plaintiff realized the cold and inconsiderate treatment that she had received from her husband and she offered to return to him the check and the note, and afterwards filed this action in the Butler circuit court against him and his brother, Callie, praying as against the former that the settlement contract be set aside because of fraud and concealment in its obtention and her disturbed mental condition at the time, and she prayed fora judgment against .him for her main-'
The defendant, Boy Turner, seeks to justify his unnatural and, as we think, unjustifiable conduct, upon the ground that the father-in-law and brother-in-law of plaintiff wrongfully interfered with his rights as her husband, in advising her after the marriage with reference to her duty in preserving for the benefit of her children the personal property she obtained from her first husband, which advice from them seems to have been very offensive to the defendant and as he insists justified his separation from his wife and shipping her to other ■quarters. The record does not disclose any quarrels or ■disturbing contentions on the part of plaintiff growing out of that matter. On the contrary, it appears from the record that she possessed a gentle and noncombative ■disposition and fully comprehended her wifely duties with an accompanying desire to perform them. She, of •course, wanted to observe the right, and proper course with reference to her pittance of property, and if it was her duty to preserve it and expend it for the benefit of her children, from whose father she obtained it, she desired to do so, but she neither assumed nor manifested to the defendant any fixed or determined purpose to do ■so; nor does it even appear that he insisted otherwise,
A second justification for his conduct, as urged by the defendant, was a veiled intimation by him that plaintiff was unduly familiar with her brother-in-law, Veachel Anderson, who with her father-in-law gave her the advice to which he objected. In support of this contention the proof shows that the children of plaintiff were very much attached to their uncle, which attachment was reciprocated by him. About twice per week during the fifty-nine days plaintiff and defendant were married and living together the brother-in-law, while driving his automobile, would pass by and stop in front of the house and more frequently than otherwise he would not get out, but the children and sometimes plaintiff would come to the front gate and converse with him. Once or twice he got out of the automobile and went into the house, but in no case was his visit accompanied with the slightest suspicious facts or circumstances. It is also in proof that he went with plaintiff to the merchant to obtain her wedding trousseau when she married defendant. The foregoing is all the evidence to sustain this alleged justification and it is perfectly apparent that it must share the same fate as the first one.
On the question of fraud, as well as the overreaching of plaintiff in the execution of the settlement agreement, we think the testimony is abundantly sufficient to support it. She was not only ignorant of her rights as well as the extent'of the property owned by her husband, but she was so overwhelmed by the precipitate action on the part of her husband in demanding the separation and the execution of the agreement that she could scarcely be considered as being in proper condition to understandingly enter into it. The record contains no evidence that she knew the extent of her husband’s estate, and she testified without objection that she did not know it;
We have also arrived at the same conclusion with reference to the deed conveying defendant’s land to his brother. (Plaintiff signed that deed not exceeding forty-eight hours before she was driven from defendant’s home in the manner hereinbefore stated, and at that time not the slightest intimation of any such contemplated action was imparted to her, and she thought that the sale of the land was but an ordinary and usual one in.the common affairs of life. Neither did she' know the consideration expressed in the deed, since she appears to have been willing to confide such matters exclusively to her husband. On the other hand, it is shown that the consideration of $1,000.00 expressed in that deed was scarcely half •the value of the land and the unwillingness of defendant to tell in his deposition his disposition of that sum or where he had it deposited, together with many other facts and circumstances clearly established the fact that he executed the conveyance solely in anticipation of the •concealed separation between himself and wife which he then intended to bring about within the next few days! It is also shown by unerring and convincing circum■stances that defendant’s brother, the vendee in that deed, was fully cognizant of the purpose of the husband in its ■execution.
But, it is insisted that after the deed was executed it was discovered that the husband did not obtain title to certain aliquot parts of the land conveyed through a ■deed executed to him by his mother several years prior thereto because of the fact that his father, who was living .at the time the mother executed her deed, did not join in it. However, the heirs of the mother were not made parties to the action, but if they had been, defendant had obtained a portion of his title from some of them and they would be estopped to claim any inherited interest irom their mother because of the warranty in their deeds to him. Besides, defendant owned other property than the land conveyed under his fraudulent deed to his brother, and we are not prepared to say that the judgment is excessive even if he should lose any part of the title to the land conveyed to his brother.
That it is competent for a court to render judgment in a lump sum in actions of this kind by the wife, even In the absence of grounds for an absolute divorce, has been thoroughly settled by the opinions of this court.
Perceiving no error in the judgment it is accordingly affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.