Falk v. Falk

120 P.2d 724, 48 Cal. App. 2d 780, 1941 Cal. App. LEXIS 879
California Court of Appeal·Decided December 29, 1941·No. Civ. No. 6647·Published·Cited by 30 cases

Opinion

THE COURT

The defendant has appealed from an order allowing plaintiff alimony pendente lite and anticipated costs on three appeals from an interlocutory decree of divorce which was rendered in her favor on the grounds of adultery and extreme cruelty.

The appellant contends that the court abused its discretion in allowing plaintiff $200 per month as alimony pendente lite, and $576.50 as costs for the three appeals, since the evidence shows that she has adequate income from her own property, and that the allowances were therefore unnecessary. It is also claimed the order for costs on the appeals under the provisions of section 1034 of the Code of Civil Procedure awards an excessive amount; that it is void for failure to provide that the said payments shall be credited on any final awards which may be made, and that the notice of appeal is ineffectual because the original minute order for alimony pendente lite and costs is in full force and controlling over the subsequent written order purporting to determine the same subject of controversy.

The plaintiff and defendant lived together as husband and wife for twenty-one years. The plaintiff has been ill and under the care of a physician, other than her husband, for [783]*783more than two years. She is still indebted to that physician for his services. The defendant is a prominent physician in active practice. He owns property of the value of more than $150,000. He possesses and successfully operates a hospital at Eureka. He derives an annual income from the practice of his profession and from the net receipts of his hospital amounting to several thousand dollars. He has profitably conducted several timber enterprises. He has bought and sold real estate at considerable profit. At the time of his marriage to plaintiff he owned at least seven separate parcels of land, together with numerous standard stocks, bonds and securities of the aggregate value of more than $130,000, from which he regularly derives substantial dividends. He engaged in buying and selling on the market stocks, bonds and securities. From this source he derived profits amounting to several thousand dollars per year. He loaned money and maintained bank accounts from which he was paid considerable interest. He was accustomed to deposit in his bank account proceeds derived from his business and profession which he commingled with funds secured from sales of his separate real properties, stocks, bonds and securities, so that it was imposible to trace the sources from which any of the funds were derived. In the divorce suit the community property was directed to be equally divided between the spouses.

The suit for divorce and for division of the community property was instituted by the plaintiff. She was granted a divorce on the grounds of extreme cruelty and adultery. That portion of the decree is not challenged on appeal. The plaintiff was also awarded one-half of the community property. The trial of the case consumed several days. The transcript on defendant’s main appeal consists of 975 pages. Three appeals from that judgment were perfected. Plaintiff filed four printed briefs in those appealed eases. She appealed on the ground that the court had erroneously awarded to the defendant a large amount of community property as his separate property. The defendant instituted this and another appeal. In the last-mentioned appeal he sought a reversal on the ground that the court erred in determining that certain specified stocks, bonds and securities were community property. Pending these appeals all of the community and defendant’s separate property remain in his possession and under his exclusive control.

After the entry of the interlocutory decree, the plaintiff [784]*784moved for an order under section 137 of the Civil Code to award her alimony pendente lite and necessary costs of prosecuting the three appeals. This motion was heard upon plaintiff’s verified affidavit which was admitted in evidence without objection, and to which no counter-affidavit was filed. Two witnesses were examined, on the hearing of the motion, in behalf of the defendant. A copy of his Federal income tax return for 1938 was received in evidence. The judge who tried the divorce case also heard this motion. It was conceded the trial court was authorized to consider on this motion all of the evidence adduced at the trial of the divorce action. (1 Cal. Jur. 964, sec. 19.) The motion was submitted and taken under advisement. July 27, 1939, the court directed the entry of a minute order granting the motion and specifying the amounts of alimony pendente lite and costs of suit to be awarded plaintiff, in which minute order it was specifically provided, ‘‘ Counsel for plaintiff may prepare a more detailed order for the above payments.” A detailed written order was accordingly prepared, signed by the judge and entered July 31, 1939, as the formal judgment on that motion. The written order awarded plaintiff $576.50 for “her costs and expenses on the appeals.” She was also allowed $200 per month as alimony pendente lite, from July 21, 1939, “until the further order of this court. ’ ’ It was provided that said sums shall be paid by the defendant from the community earnings derived from the practice of his profession, and “if said earnings be not sufficient, the balance thereof may be paid from the community property of the parties hereto.” From the last-mentioned order the defendant has appealed.

We are of the opinion there is no merit in respondent’s contention that this appeal is ineffectual because the original minute order purporting to determine the motion for alimony and costs remains in full force and constitutes the order from which no appeal has been taken. The minute order was a mere tentative ruling of the court on that motion. That is clearly indicated by the language of the minute order. The court specifically authorized the plaintiff to prepare and present “a more detailed order for the above payments.” She did so. We are therefore satisfied the formal written order was the judgment from which the appeal was properly taken. The former minute order becomes functus officio.

The award of $576.50 for plaintiff’s “costs and expenses on the appeals” is not excessive. That sum includes [785]*785not only all necessary costs of prosecuting plaintiff’s appeal, but also the costs incurred in defending herself on two appeals instituted by the defendant. In those three appeals she filed four printed briefs. Her brief filed on the defendant’s chief appeal, in which he seeks a reversal on the alleged ground that the court erroneously awarded plaintiff certain stocks and bonds as community property consists of about 100 pages. The transcript in that case consists of 975 pages. We may assume she was entitled to a copy of that transcript from which to prepare her defense on appeal. The transcript in the ease in which plaintiff appealed consists of sixty pages, which she was required to procure and pay for. Many other expenses would be necessarily incurred by her on the three appeals. The verified affidavit of the plaintiff which was received without objection on the hearing of the motion avers that she will necessarily incur that amount of expense incident to the three appeals. The defendant filed no counter-affidavit on that motion, and no satisfactory evidence was adduced to refute the asserted claims for that sum. We must therefore assume there is ample evidence to support that award of costs on the three appeals.

That award is not in conflict with the provisions of section 1034 of the Code of Civil Procedure.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Falk v. Falk, 120 P.2d 724, 48 Cal. App. 2d 780, 1941 Cal. App. LEXIS 879 (Cal. Ct. App. 1941).

120 P.2d 724 (Falk v. Falk) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

Malabanan v. Malabanan, Jr.
Superior Court of Guam, 2012
Bain v. Superior Court
36 Cal. App. 3d 804 (California Court of Appeal, 1974)
Waller v. Waller
3 Cal. App. 3d 456 (California Court of Appeal, 1970)
Nilsson v. City of Los Angeles
249 Cal. App. 2d 976 (California Court of Appeal, 1967)
Zundel v. Zundel
146 N.W.2d 903 (North Dakota Supreme Court, 1966)
Cope v. Cope
230 Cal. App. 2d 218 (California Court of Appeal, 1964)
In Re O'Brien MacHinery, Inc.
224 Cal. App. 2d 563 (California Court of Appeal, 1964)
O'BRIEN v. City of Santa Monica
220 Cal. App. 2d 67 (California Court of Appeal, 1963)
Bishop v. Donovan
209 Cal. App. 2d 48 (California Court of Appeal, 1962)
Bentz v. Bentz
171 Ohio St. (N.S.) 535 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1961)
Lavine v. Jessup
345 P.2d 505 (California Court of Appeal, 1959)
People v. Sanson
319 P.2d 422 (California Court of Appeal, 1957)
Burman v. Burman
318 P.2d 51 (California Court of Appeal, 1957)
Tanzola v. De Rita
285 P.2d 897 (California Supreme Court, 1955)
In re Malone
284 P.2d 805 (California Supreme Court, 1955)
Forrest v. Forrest
271 P.2d 70 (California Court of Appeal, 1954)
Pacific Bal Industries v. Northern Timber, Inc.
259 P.2d 465 (California Court of Appeal, 1953)
Vartanian v. Croll
256 P.2d 1022 (California Court of Appeal, 1953)
Larsen v. Larsen
226 P.2d 650 (California Court of Appeal, 1951)
Dillon v. Dillon
220 P.2d 213 (Nevada Supreme Court, 1950)