Howell v. Dunning
Howell v. Dunning
Opinion of the Court
Prior to April, 1914, the respondent and appellant were husband and wife, residing together as such in the town of Harrington, which had been their home for several years. At practically the same time, the respondent, through his attorney at Davenport, and the appellant, through her attorney at Spokane, each began a suit for divorce from the other, and shortly after the service of the respective com
It is admitted that the husband’s attorney undertook to act for both in arranging the property settlement and procuring the entry of the decree, and there is nothing in the record to indicate that the attorney acted in any other than a fair and impartial manner respecting the settlement. Neither is there anything to indicate that the attorney knew anything more of the value of the community property or the earning capacity of the business carried on by the husband than did the wife. And, acting for both upon a subject upon which they were apparently agreed, there appears to have been no reason for him to make such an investigation as might have been thought proper by one acting solely in the interest of the wife. After the entry of the decree, the wife went to California, and in the fall of 1916 first learned facts that indicated that she had been deceived in the property settlement, and thereafter brought this action, attacking only that portion of the decree which provides for the property settlement. Prom an adverse judgment below, she appeals.
Considering the nature of the case, the evidence is singularly lacking in conflict upon most of the vital points. As already stated, the respondent admits that appellant, while his wife, knew nothing about the details of the business; does not deny that he commonly refused her information when she inquired; and one
That the amount paid to the wife was grossly inadequate is practically admitted. The husband himself testified in his own behalf as to the value of the community property at the time of the settlement, as follows:
“Q. Are you able to give at this time what your property, what you considered your property was worth at that time over and above your debts, over your liabilities? A. Why, I should imagine it was worth from $12,000 to $14,000. I wouldn’t say whether it was worth that much or less. It could not have been worth over that.”
While his bookkeeper, to whom he referred all questions of figures, and who, as he stated, knew all about. his financial affairs, testified that the net assets of the firm in which the husband was a partner and half owner, for the year 1914, being the year immediately preceding the entry of the decree, were of the value of
Appellant asks us, if we find the wife has been defrauded, to treat the' community estate as undivided, order an accounting, and give the wife the benefit of the earnings subsequent to the entry of the decree.
The record discloses a state of facts with reference to the entry of the decree of divorce by consent upon a complaint verified and served a year before, during all of which intervening time the parties had lived together as husband and wife, thus working a condonation of all matters charged, which amounted to a fraud upon the trial court, and cannot be permitted to pass here without comment and condemnation of all concerned therein. Neither party has attacked the decree except in the one particular of the property settlement, yet, did it not appear that appellant has remarried and has a child by her second husband, we should feel it our duty, of our own motion, to direct the trial court to set aside the decree in toto;, but since to do so would be to punish the innocent with the guilty, we feel constrained to direct the trial court to permit the decree to stand as to the divorce, the custody of the children, and the provision for their support, but to modify it as to the property settlement as hereinbefore indicated.
Judgment reversed.
Holcomb, O. J., Mount, Bridges, and Fullerton, JJ., concur.
[Decided March I, 1920.]
In the opinion heretofore filed in this
case, it is said:
“The record discloses a state of facts with reference to the entry of the decree of divorce by consent upon a complaint verified and served a year before,*597 during all of which intervening time the parties had lived together as husband and wife, thus working a condonation of all matters charged, which amounted .to a fraud upon the trial court, and cannot be permitted to pass here without comment and condemnation of all concerned therein. ’ ’
While adhering strictly to the views thus expressed, it is but fair to say that none of the attorneys now appearing for respondent appeared for, or in any sense represented, him in the divorce action, a fact which should have been set forth in the original opinion. Our attention being called to the oversight, we make haste, in justice to respondent’s present counsel, to say that we find nothing in the record reflecting upon them or either of them in the slightest degree.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Nettie Howell v. L. A. Dunning
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- Divorce (47-1, 70)—Vacation—Fraud—Division of Property. A decree of divorce, awarding the wife hut $3,000 of the community property, arranged upon the mutual agreement of the parties, will he set aside for the fraud of the husband, where it was induced by falsely representing that the community property, admittedly worth $16,000, was of the value of only $6,000, and by dissuading the wife, who was ignorant of the facts, from seeking legal advice; since it was his duty to make full disclosures and a fair division or put her on notice that they were dealing at arm’s length. Divorce (47-1, 70)—Vacation—Fraud Upon Court. A divorce, granted on a complaint filed one year previously, after condonation of all the charges, is a fraud upon the court which should he set aside, were it not for the fact of a second marriage and that innocent parties would suffer.