Allred v. Allred

1928 OK 346, 267 P. 842, 131 Okla. 55, 1928 Okla. LEXIS 569
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedMay 29, 1928
Docket18109
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 1928 OK 346 (Allred v. Allred) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Allred v. Allred, 1928 OK 346, 267 P. 842, 131 Okla. 55, 1928 Okla. LEXIS 569 (Okla. 1928).

Opinion

RILEY, J.

Ada Allred appeals from a judgment granting a divorce to her husband, J. E. Allred, and providing for a settlement upon her in lieu of division of jointly acquired property.

The record facts are:

Plaintiff and defendant lived in Seminole county upon 200 acres of land located between Cromwell and Seminole. The land was acquired by their joint labor. A mortgage existed thereon in the amount of $3,500. There was some live stock and household furniture with an axoproximate value of $1,-700, and $1,700 cash, which the defendant wife carried on her person. All property was acquired by joint industry and labor of plaintiff and defendant. To the union ten children had been born. Seven were living in March, 1022; four were minors, the youngest four years old. About the date mentioned. the wife, without knowledge of her husband, with the $1,700 cash on her person, and all the children at home, went to Seminole, purchased railroad transportation and departed to San Bernardino, Cal., where she has since resided. Soon after, the husband learned of his wife’s whereabouts and bogan a correspondence with her seeking a quitclaim deed to the land in question and to *56 secure her signature to an oil lease thereon. In December, 1922, the defendant wife in California signed an oil and gas lease to the 200 acres in Seminole county, whereby plaintiff received the $2,500 bonus thereon. By the intention of defendant this bonus was to have been applied to the mortgage of $3,500 upon the home place, but plaintiff retained the same. Likewise the additional rentals of $1 per acre, or $200 per annum, have been paid to plaintiff yearly, and retained by him.

In August, 1922, the husband began an action for divorce and for title to all the property, real and personal. On February 20, 1923, the plaintiff secured a divorce and judgment awarding him all property. The minor children were awarded the wife for her care and custody. The plaintiff married again and lived upon the 200 acres in Seminole county.

In 1925, defendant learned of her husband’s marriage and she returned to Oklahoma, and thereupon, for the first time, was informed of the divorce of February 26, 1923, and the, award of all property to her husband.

On November 12, 1925, the judgment of February 26, 1923, was vacated upon petition of defendant, upon the ground of improper service of summons by publication. Plaintiff therein dismissed the action and his second marriage was dissolved by an action.

Thereafter, and on November 20, 1925, the plaintiff below, defendant in error, filed the action now before us, praying divorce on the grounds of abandonment and for custody of minor children and all property, both real and personal.

The defendant wife filed answer and cross-petition. admitting separation in March, 1922. but denying that same was abandonment without fault of plaintiff, but by reason of habitual drunkenness, gross neglect of duty, and extreme cruelty.

The case was tried December 1, 1925. The trial court took the case under advisement until September, 1926, and during the interim the mineral rights in the land involved had advanced in value. On September 20. 1926. upon defendant’s motion the case was reopened, and on November 5, 1926, there was evidence introduced on behalf of defendant showing that the mineral rights as to the land involved were then worth $100 per acre, or $20,000.

The judgment rendered November 5, 1926, granted plaintiff a divorce on grounds of abandonment and awarded to him all property, real and personal, but directing plaintiff to pay defendant $3,000 at the. rate of $50 per month in lieu of her interest in the land in question, and declaring said $3,000 to be a lien upon said land. This award was in addition to the $l-,700 retained by defendant. There was no decision as to custody of minor children; there were but two minors at the time of judgment. Alimony did not enter into consideration at any time. The court’s judgment was that each party pay its own attorney fee. On the same day of judgment, motion for new trial was overruled and journal entry overruling same and reciting notice of appeal was caused to be filed.

Motion to dismiss the appeal on the alleged ground that compliance had not been made with section 510, C. O. S. 1921, in that notice of appeal had not been filed within ten days as thereby required in a divorce action, was overruled by this court, May 3, 1927.

Suffice it to say that upon the question of jurisdiction this court has repeatedly held that an action for divorce and for division of jointly acquired property presents two causes of action, maintainable separately or combined, and likewise appealable. Appellate jurisdiction as to divorce would depend on section 510, O. O. S. 1921, whereas appellate jurisdiction as to division of property jointly acquired would be controlled by section 782, C. O. S. 1921. Montgomery v. Montgomery, 41 Okla. 581, 139 Pac. 288; Lewis v. Lewis, 39 Okla. 407, 135 Pac. 397; Howell v. Howell, 42 Okla. 286, 141 Pac. 412; Moody v. Moody, 120 Okla. 128, 250 Pac. 916; Tobin v. Tobin, 89 Okla. 12, 213 Pac. 884; Davis v. Davis, 61 Okla. 278, 161 Pac. 190; Thompson v. Thompson, 70 Okla. 207, 173 Pac. 1037; Kremer v. Kremer (Kan.) 90 Pac. 998, 91 Pac. 45; Wamberg v. Wamberg (Kan.) 206 Pac. 889.

The view in Reynolds v. Reynolds, 94 Okla. 114. 221 Pac. 109, relied upon by defendant in error, must be confined to divorce and alimony awards as distinguished from judgments in division of jointly acquired property.

We hold, further, that requirements of section 510, supra, are had by incorporating in the journal entry overruling motion for new trial the following:

“Be it further remembered that the defendant on this date in open court gave notice of appeal from the ruling and judgment of this court to the Supreme Court of this state. * * *”

*57 And within ten days after judgment, causing same to be filed with the clerk of the court, as was done in this case as shown by the notice contained in the journal entry, ■ ‘duly entitled,” and filed in the office of the clerk of the court on November 5, 1926, the very day of judgment. Therefore, we hold /this court has jurisdiction of the whole case, because there has been compliance with section 510, supra. In any event, we have jurisdiction of so much of the judgment as concerned the division of jointly acquired property.

The judgment being in equity, this court will review the evidence, and if the judg'ment is clearly against the weight of the evidence, the same will be reversed, and this court will render or cause to be rendered such judgment as warranted by the weight of the evidence. Moody v. Moody, 120 Okla. 128, 250 Pac. 916.

We now review the evidence as to the ground for divorce. Abandonment in March, 1922, was admitted by the wife. She established by averment and by proof that cause of abandonment was: (1) Habitual drunkenness of plaintiff. (2) He was an habitual violator of the prohibitory liquor law, and had been convicted in Oklahoma in the federal court in 1921, and in Arkansas he had difficulty in liquoi business. Walton v. Walton (Kan.) 8 Pac. 110; People v. Radley (Mich.) 86 N. W. 1029; Tarrant v. Tarrant. (Mo.) 137 S. W. 56; Page v. Page (Wash.) 86 Pac. 582.

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Bluebook (online)
1928 OK 346, 267 P. 842, 131 Okla. 55, 1928 Okla. LEXIS 569, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/allred-v-allred-okla-1928.