Erwin v. Erwin
Erwin v. Erwin
Opinion of the Court
This suit was brought by ap-pellee for divorce against appellant and settlement and partition of the community estate between them. Briefly stated, it is alleged they were married in Inglefield, Inch, on or about the 13th day of October, A. D. 1907, and lived together as husband and wife until about a year before the institution of the *835 present suit, when, because of the cruelties, excesses, and outrages of appellant, she ceased to live with him as his wife or in the same house with him. The statutory grounds for jurisdiction were sufficiently alleged and proven.
It is ■ alleged that soon after the marriage appellant began a course of cruel, excessive, and inhuman conduct towards her, which continued until plaintiff was forced to leave him, and which rendered their future living together as husband and wife insupportable. Those grounds, generalized, are that, though earning good money, appellant wholly failed and refused to provide the ordinary necessities of life for her and their two minor children, so that she has been compelled by her own labor to supply such necessities, or obtain same as the gift of friends and relatives; that during their whole married life the appellant only furnished her two dresses; that she had to keep roomers and do such other work as she could to obtain means of support for herself and the two minor children. During all this time appellant was amply able to provide of his means such necessities for her and their children, but he willfully failed and refused to do so, to her shame, humiliation, and suffering.
Appellee further alleged he was. habitually unclean and even filthy in his personal care of himself, going as much as three months at one time without bathing his body, without excuse, humiliating to her, and which made their living together as husband and wife insupportable. '
Appellee further alleged appellant during all their married life together was given to violent outbursts of temper and would go into a rage of anger without excuse, justification, or provocation, and would indulge in the use of the most violent language, cursing, and swearing in the presence of and to appel-lee, and threatened to do her personal violence at times, which humiliated her and caused her great distress of both body and mind; that such line of conduct has been such as to give her great pain of mind and body, and has caused her to fear unless she separate from appellant and have an order restraining him from coming about or interfering with her, her health will be seriously broken and wrecked, which already has rendered their living together as husband and wife insupportable.
There are two children born to them, Lucille, 12 years old, and Geraldine, approaching 8 years old, who have been supported and cared for by appellee, and neglected and disregarded by appellant, and appellee prays for their custody and control.
In reply to the special exceptions appellee filed a trial amendment more definitely and specifically pleading and setting out the facts, times, , etc., and more specifically alleging as to the times abusive language was used and circumstances concerning his rages, cursing, and swearing at and to her.
The appellant filed answer, containing general and specific objections to the petition.
It will be observed there is no specific allegation of personal violence.
After hearing all the evidence the court granted the decree of divorce to appellee as prayed for.
We think the petition and trial amendment sufficiently state a cause of action for divorce. They together state time, place, and material circumstances and acts of cruel treatment sufficiently. It is not necessary to point them' out in detail here; the general grounds sufficiently appear as we set them out in the statement of this case and are proven in detail. It is based upon habitual indifference, neglect, and failure to support; continual and habitual abuse upon the part of appellant to appellee, persisted in continuously during the entire period of their married life; nagging, cursing, and abusing her and at her in the presence of others; refusing to support and to contribute to the support of herself and their minor children; refusal to buy her or them clothing; remaining uncleanly and refusing and neglecting to bathe his body, humiliating to her and insupportable.
“I ask him to give me a cheek, and he said, ‘Cheek! cheek! cheek! God damn, yon, that is all you talk about is check!’ ”
Again:
“My husband came home and asked me where I was going and I told him to the Majestic and he began to curse me. He said, ‘God damn you, that is all you do is run around.’ ”
And again:
“Mr. Henry, the grocer, a little below us, came to the house for his grocery bill, and he came in and cursed Mr. Henry in my presence, and said, ‘God damn you, you are afraid you won’t get it.’ ” '
These assignments are based on the objection taken at the time that there is no allegation, to support such testimony, irrelevant, immaterial, and prejudicial to the defendant. We think the pleading sufficiently broad enough to admit this testimony. Besides, the ease was tried before the court without a jury, who was quite capable to separate the material testimony from the immaterial. Whether a case be tried with or without a jury, the judgment of the trial court, as to *836 whether or not a divorce should he granted as a matter of law, must be satisfied from all the testimony, and so it must he with this court. Golding v. Golding, 108 S. W. 498.
The appellant has well presented his theory in his excellent brief. To our mind his error consists of the fact that he seems to think there must always be shown some physical violence to warrant a divorce or such cruel treatment as is tantamount to it. He greatly relies on the opinion of this court in Rowden v. Rowden, 212 S. W. 302. We think the rule is well settled that the ill treatment spoken of in the statute means that such excesses, cruel treatment, or outrage must be of such a nature as will produce a degree of mental distress which threatens to impair the health of the injured party.
Appellant’s contention that the failure on the part of the wife to bring this suit earlier is to be held against her is not in our opinion justified by the facts. She is rather to be commended for her hesitancy, which was due to her reluctance to go before a court and expose her domestic life, and she waited, hoping for an improvement, until her girls began to arrive at an age to take notice.
From the earliest decision of our courts, it has never been necessary, under the broad terms of the statute granting divorces because of the ill treatment that amounted to cruel treatment, that there should be personal violence or bodily hurt. Sheffield v. Sheffield, 3 Tex. 87; Wright v. Wright, 6 Tex. 16; Eastman v. Eastman, 75 Tex. 473, 12 S. W. 1107; Dawson v. Dawson, 63 Tex. Civ. App. 168, 132 S. W. 381; Jones v. Jones, 60 Tex. 451; Taylor v. Taylor, 18 Tex. 578.
On the subject of divorces this court has been very pronounced against them, except it be made very clear that one should be granted. Lohmuller v. Lohmuller, 135 S. W. 753; Rowden v. Rowden, 212 S. W. 302; Bingham v. Bingham, 149 S. W. 214. We do not intend to limit or qualify those cases. They are authority here. While the pleadings nor evidence set out any physical violence, yet the pleading and evidence show such a line of general, persistent ill treatment, neglect, and disregard for his wife and children as to *837 render their living together as insupportable. It is not a mere occasional instance of “abusive language used only once, or even at intervals,” but is that with many other things and acts done, such as said by the late Justice Neill in Dawson v. Dawson, supra:
“It is now generally held, even in jurisdictions where the common law obtains, unaided by statutes such as ours, regarding causes for divorce, that ‘any dnjust conduct on the part of either the husband or wife, which so grievously wounds the feelings of the other, or so utterly destroys the peace of mind of the other as to seriously impair the health, or such as to utterly destroy the legitimate purpose and object of matrimony constitutes extreme cruelty,’ constituting a cause for the dissolution of matrimony.”
Many cases of cruel treatment have been based upon charges of the husband reflecting upon the wife’s chastity.
No good woman should be compelled to live with a man who so assassinates her character, but that is not the only character of ill treatment that amounts to cruelty to her. The trial court heard all the testimony in this ease and granted the divorce.
We find no reversible error assigned, and overrule the assignments.
The judgment of the trial court is affirmed.
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