English v. English
English v. English
Opinion of the Court
On the 25th of November, 1908, plaintiff, then a young woman about twenty years of age, was married to defendant, a young man about twenty-six years of age, both of them having lived in Shelby county practically all their lives, and acquaintances for two years or more before their marriage. Before the marriage defendant had been working on a farm some three miles from where plaintiff resided with her father and mother, the father a farmer in Shelby county. Whether defendant worked on shares or as owner or as a hired man is not clear, but he boarded with the lady who, as we understand, is living on the farm. When the marriage took place between the parties the husband took his wife to this farm and they boarded with this lady, having their own room in the house, but all living together as one family. The parties to this suit lived together as husband and wife until the 11th of July following, or in the language of plaintiff, she lived with defendant “seven months and two weeks.” Leaving him she went to, the home of her parents and on the 16th day of December, 1909,
The statutory ground assigned in the petition is that defendant had offered plaintiff such indignities as to render her condition intolerable. The specifications of indignities, summarized, are that a week after the marriage, plaintiff desired to go to her father’s home, about three and one-half miles from where she and her husband were living, to visit there with some relatives and that defendant flew into a passion and refused to take her to her father’s, and plaintiff being anxious to see her relatives, went to her father’s and visited for five hours and returning home found defendant in a bad temper and an ugly mood and that he “sulked for several days;” that afterwards, early in January, 1909, plaintiff was expecting her mother and a lady friend to visit her and told defendant of it, but defendant demanded that she go with him and haul corn and said that her mother could visit on the next day, as he expected plaintiff to work that day, and hé compelled her to go with him and haul corn; that she went with him and after she had returned to their home, defendant also returned and was angry and abused her and was cross for several days; that after plaintiff had hauled this corn she wanted to spend the night with her parents but defendant refused to go with her or to take her there or come after her, and told her if she' did go she would have to get some one to bring her home.- Her brother brought her home and defendant refused to speak to her and appeared angry and was sullen and having prepared himself for church went with the lady with whom they were boarding; that before going he became angry, kicked the chairs over' and left plaintiff alone in the house, just before leaving the house defendant saying to plaintiff that he was sorry he got married; that on divers dates since the last named date defendant had become angry without any cause
The answer, admitting the marriage, denies all the other allegations.
The case was tried by the court and, as recited in the decree, the court having heard the evidence, took the case under advisement “and having had the evidence reduced to writing and considered that and the pleadings,” rendered a decree dissolving the marriage and restoring plaintiff her maiden name, awarding costs against plaintiff. So far as the record shows, no order was made concerning alimony or maintenance. From this decree defendant has duly perfected his appeal to this court.
We have read with very great care, not once but again, all the evidence in this case as presented in the' abstract furnished by counsel.
On careful consideration of the pleadings and all the evidence in the case, we have concluded that this decree should not have been granted.
Even the petition is meager in setting out such facts as constitute indignities which should constitute grounds for a divorce. For the most part, they are trivial, even childish. No attack has been made on the petition, however, and we do not consider it necessary to pass on its sufficiency.
Beading over the testimony of plaintiff, and she was her sole witness, we find that it falls far short of proving even what by liberal construction can be designated as substantial, real, indignities, and even on
It appears that these young people were farmers, really hoy and girl, raised on the farm, accustomed to farm work. Plaintiff knew exactly into what condition she was entering when she married this defendant. She knew that he was a young man, working a farm and that as his wife she would share that labor with him. She knew that he was a man of limited means, for she testified that he told her, about a year before the marriage, that if. he was able to raise two hundred dollars he could clear himself of debt. She testified that her husband did not furnish her with many articles of wearing apparel. She came to him as' a bride; whether she had wearing apparel of her own is not in evidence. Her own testimony fails to show any compulsion by her husband to make her join him in the farm work; in point of fact, the impression that we gather from reading that testimony is' that she went out working with him on the farm to he near him; she certainly fails to show compulsion, although she does deny that she volunteered. She testified that her husband told her to go home and that he was sorry he married her. Her husband’s version of this is, that on one occasion when they were having some'words, at the time when she had returned from her father’s on the cherry picking expedition, he said to her he thought she should have come home a little sooner and she gave him to understand that she would come when she pleased, whereupon he told her he did not think she was doing right and told her she had better go and stay a week and get her visit out. The husband testified that he thought his wife was doing what she did voluntarily; that he was poor and they were trying to get a start. His version of the conversation in which his wife testified that he had told her that he was sorry he married her was, that in one of their “spats” his wife was crying and he told her
Mrs. Hickland, the lady with whom the parties lived, testified that she had lived in Shelby county over fifty-one years; that defendant had been living at her house and farming with her some two years before the marriage; her house was a six-room house and the husband and wife had their own room; that while she had never been in that room with them and could not speak of anything that took place there or when they were alone together, they were constantly around the house with her, all ate at the same table; while she was the housekeeper, plaintiff and defendant lived with her and while she was the manager plaintiff helped about the housework, the milking and the cooking; 'had never seen any difference between the parties; had never seen defendant sulking about the house; they all lived together like one family, except when the husband and wife were in their own room; never saw any ill-temper or sulkiness displayed by the husband; they seemed to get along together very
This was substantially the testimony in the case.
Our law concerning divorce does not permit the courts to sever marriages for the acts here in evidence. These acts do not constitute such statutory “indignities” as require or justify the interposition of the' courts. The state and the community are more concerned with the marital relation than with any other, not only domestic but commercial. While very liberal in allowing the dissolution of the marriage relation, the law demands of parties seeking the aid of the courts, that they should show grave cause. Marriage is not to be dissolved for light or trivial matters, so light and so trivial that mutual forbearance and a little consideration from one for the other will remove them. The matters in evidence in this case do not even tend to show that the conduct of defendant to this plaintiff was of a character to constitute such indignities as should or in fact did render the condition of plaintiff intolerable. The judgment of the circuit court is reversed and the cause remanded, with directions to the circuit court to dismiss plaintiff’s suit without prejudice.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.