Alexander v. Alexander

373 S.W.2d 800, 1963 Tex. App. LEXIS 1894
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 5, 1963
Docket9
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 373 S.W.2d 800 (Alexander v. Alexander) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Alexander v. Alexander, 373 S.W.2d 800, 1963 Tex. App. LEXIS 1894 (Tex. Ct. App. 1963).

Opinion

GREEN, Chief Justice.

This is an action for divorce, child custody and support, and division of property, real and personal, filed in the district court of Kleberg County, Texas, by ap-pellee Iva Maurine Alexander against appellant Ralph C. Alexander, alleging cruel treatment of such a nature as to render their living together insupportable as ground for divorce.

The trial was to the court without a jury. Only the plaintiff testified as to facts causing the separation. Defendant did not testify or offer any evidence in rebuttal of plaintiff’s testimony. Judgment was entered by the court granting the divorce, awarding plaintiff the custody of the only child under eighteen years of age, finding the realty involved to be community property, awarding plaintiff homestead rights in said realty until the youngest became twenty-one years of age, at which time it should belong one-half to each party, awarding the defendant an automobile, and granting an injunction per *802 manently enjoining defendant from causing plaintiff any embarrassment or harassment.

Appellant’s appeal is based on the following points: (1) That the evidence is insufficient in law to entitle appellee to a divorce; (2) that the realty involved was appellant’s separate property, as shown by the undisputed evidence, and (3) that the trial court was without authority to divest title to one-half interest in appellant’s separate realty out of appellant and vest same in appellee.

To these points the appellee replies (1) that the evidence was sufficient to justify the trial court in granting the divorce, and (2) that the final judgment, in so far as it disposed of the property involved, was a judgment by agreement and consent of the parties, and not subject to the attack made on it by appellant.

We shall first discuss appellant’s point No. 1. We are of the opinion that the trial court did not, as a matter of law, err in finding that the appellee was entitled to a divorce.

To set out here in detail the testimony on which the trial court based his decision that divorce should be granted would add very little to the store of judicial literature. There are hundreds of opinions of our appellate courts in the Southwestern Reporter on the issues of sufficiency or insufficiency of the evidence to entitle a party to a divorce on the ground of cruel treatment under the statute. As stated by Chief Justice Murray in Guerra v. Guerra, (Tex.Civ.App., 1959) 327 S.W.2d 625, “Whether or not cruel treatment exists depends largely upon the peculiar facts in each case and it is difficult to lay down a general rule that applies to all cases.”

A summary of the undisputed testimony as shown by the record shows the following facts. The parties had been married thirty-three years. Appellant constantly argued with and nagged appellee and she left him for short intervals four times, but having in mind the welfare of their children, she returned to him after each separation. In the last five years of their marriage during which time he was employed distant from their home, he contributed nothing toward the support of his family, except payments on taxes and insurance premiums, and the entire load of supporting herself and the younger children at home was upon her. He became unemployed in July, 1962, and returned to their home. He would not work, though his health was good. He acted indifferently toward her and the family as a whole. He would not take their young son to school on cold mornings, although he had nothing else to do, but insisted that she take him. He refused to help her around the house. He interfered in the peaceful operation of her beauty parlor business. He constantly argued with her. He condemned her unjustly and accused her of infidelity. His actions were such that she could not work while he was around. In view of his treatment of her and of the untrue accusations of infidelity, her health failed, and she became a nervous wreck. After the trial court had issued a restraining order enjoining him from causing her any harassment or embarrassment and from coming around her home or attempting to communicate with her in any way, she recovered her health. She testified that she could not under any circumstances ever live with appellant again as his wife.

We note that the trial judge, after hearing the uncontroverted evidence, not only granted the divorce, but also wrote into the decree a permanent injunction whereby, after finding that appellant had been harassing and abusing appellee and interfering with the peaceable conduct of her business, and unless permanently enjoined would continue to do so, the court permanently enjoined him from “bothering plaintiff by coming around her residence or about her person or attempting to communicate with her in any way, at any time and place, or causing her any harrassment or embarrassment.”

*803 It is true that for a divorce to be properly granted on the ground of cruelty, under Article 4629(1), acts constituting excesses, outrages or cruel treatment must be established by full, clear and satisfactory evidence. However, the sufficiency and weight of the evidence necessary to meet these requirements must of necessity be left to the sound discretion of the trier of facts, subject, of course, to review by the appellate courts. McCullough v. McCullough, 120 Tex. 209, 36 S.W.2d 459; Hogue v. Hogue, Tex.Civ.App., 242 S.W.2d 673; Mobley v. Mobley, Tex.Civ.App., 263 S.W.2d 794; Daughtry v. Daughtry, Tex.Civ.App., 312 S.W.2d 957; McGinnes v. McGinnes, Tex.Civ.App., 322 S.W.2d 417; Guerra v. Guerra, Tex.Civ.App., 327 S.W.2d 625; Batte v. Batte, Tex.Civ.App., 349 S.W.2d 112; Armstrong v. Armstrong, Tex.Civ.App., 350 S.W.2d 348.

As stated in McCullough v. McCullough, Sup.Ct., supra, “It is the settled law of this state that the cruel treatment provided by our statute as a ground for divorce is not confined to physical violence alone, but may consist of a series of studied and deliberate insults and provocations.”

False charges of unchastity or infidelity made by a husband to his wife, or even a single deliberately false accusation, may constitute such cruelty as will entitle the wife to a divorce. Fomby v. Fomby, Tex.Civ.App., 329 S.W.2d 111; 20 Tex.Jur.2d, Divorce and Separation, Sec. 20, p. 368.

From a careful examination of the entire record, we are convinced that the judgment of the trial court granting appel-lee a divorce is supported by full, clear and satisfactory evidence and should be sustained. Appellant’s first point is overruled.

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373 S.W.2d 800, 1963 Tex. App. LEXIS 1894, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/alexander-v-alexander-texapp-1963.