Gray v. Gray

1923 OK 238, 215 P. 208, 89 Okla. 237, 1923 Okla. LEXIS 1056
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedMay 8, 1923
Docket13397
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 1923 OK 238 (Gray v. Gray) 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
Gray v. Gray, 1923 OK 238, 215 P. 208, 89 Okla. 237, 1923 Okla. LEXIS 1056 (Okla. 1923).

Opinion

BRANSON, J.

April 16, 1921, William Henry Gray, as plaintiff, filed in the district court of Tulsa county, Okla., against Bessie Adeline Hagerman Gray, as defendant, a petition for a decree of absolute divorce, which was, on hearing, granted, and a division of property made, and from the judgment dividing the property this appeal is prosecuted by petition in error and transcript. The parties will be referred to herein as they appeared in the court below.

Plaintiff’s petition alleged that he and the defendant were married in the state of Texas on the 1st day of November, 1911, and that they continued to live together until December, 1918, when the defendant became infatuated with another man, with whom she committed adultery.

To this petition, the defendant filed an answer, an amended answer, and a second amended answer and cross-petition, in which the defendant did not deny the ground for divorce pleaded by the plaintiff, and pleaded statutory ground for divorce, and prayed that, .divorce be granted her.

At the trial of the cause, the prayer of the defendant for divorce was denied, and divorce was granted the plaintiff. No exception is taken by the defendant to this action on the part of the trial court, and nowhere is it sought to reverse the decree granting the plaintiff the divorce.

In addition to praying the divorce on the ground set out, the plaintiff prayed a cancellation of a certain separation agreement, executed by the plaintiff and the defendant on February 5, 1919, by and under which said separation agreement they had undertaken to make an adjustment and final division of the property rights touching properties owned; the plaintiff seeking to set aside the separation agreement on the ground that the defendant had fraudulently concealed from him the fact of her infidelity, which existed prior thereto.

The defendant in her answer and cross-petition also sought to set aside the separation agreement on the ground that the plaintiff had concealed from her the real amount of property owned by him, and that she had entered into the agreement to accept the amount therein specified by reason of this fraudulent concealment. No exception is *238 made to the action of the court in vacating the separation agreement.

The defendant, in perfecting her appeal, does so only by' transcript. A case-made, or the entire record, including the evidence before the trial court, is not brought to this court for Teview, but only the pleadings and the judgment entered by the trial court are before us, and we must reach our conclusions . without the opportunity to examine the record before the trial court, and there is, therefore, nothing enabling us to pass upon the situation as it was presented there.

The allegation of error can be best understood by reciting the findings of the trial court. The trial court found, among other things, that the parties made their home in thé city of Houston, Tex., until August, 1917, when they removed to the city of Tulsa, Oltla., and that they brought with them approximately $25,000, which had'-been accumulated prior to the date of their removal (o Oklahoma, and ■ that under the laws of the state of Texas this $25,000 was community property. That the plaintiff, is now possessed of property of the value- of $200,-000, and that -the same was accumulated during the time that the -plaintiff and der fiendiant resided -in the state of Oklahoma';: and through their'mutual and joint efforts, and -was accumulated as a result of investment and reinvestment of the. $25,000 brought frían Texas, and concluded :

“It is further considered ordered, adjured, and .decreed.- that the defendant, Bessie Adeline, .Hagerman Gray, do. have and recover of and from- the plaintiff, William Henry Gray, the sum of $12,500, to be papd^by the defendant in cash, as follows, to wit: * * *” ....

■Then is recited that one-half shall be paid within 45 days and the remaining .one-haIf in 120 days, with interest. And further:

"‘‘It is further ordered, -adjudged, and decreed by the court that the defendant, Bessie Adeline Hagerman Gray, have and recover of -' and from the plaintiff, William Henry Gray, further judgment for an additional sum of $3,500 for the' use and benefit of defendant’s counsel. * *- • the said sum of $3,500 to be paid by the plaintiff to the defendant or to the defendant’s counsel, for their uso and -benefit. On or before May 25, 1922,” etc.

And further found and adjudged:

‘Tt - is by- the court further considered, ordered, adjudged, and decreed that the defendant, Bessie Adeline Hagerman Gray, be paid by the plaintiff, William Henry Gray, the additional sum of $350 each and every month hereafter, as long as she, the said Bessie Adeline, Hagerman Gray, remains single. That the first payment of the said-$350 shall be made on or before the 15th of April, 1923, and that in each month thereafter, as long as the defendant, Bessie Adeline I-Iagerman Gray, remains single, the plaintiff shall in like' manner, on or before th-e 116th day of the month, pay to the defendant, Bessie Adeline Hagerman Gray, the sum of $350, so awarded by the court in this decree, the said monthly payments to be de-' posited to the order of the defendant in the Exchange National Bank in the city of Tulsa, Okla., or, in the event of said bank ceasing to do business, in some other bank in the city of Tulsa, to be designated by this court.”

The defendant in her answer and cross-petition, among other things, pleads what purports to be several statutes of the state of Texas on the subject of community property, and after pleading the same, says:i

“Defendant further alleges that plaintiff and the defendant resided in and were domiciled in Texas prior to their marriage, and continued! to reside in and -to maintain their domicile in Texas until after the 5th day of February, 1919. That the foundation of their fortune was laid in Texas. and was the result of a small amount of property placed in the community at the time of their marriage, their earnings, money received as damages for personal ‘injury of plaintiff, and the" results of investments of borrowed money, by the laws of Texas, constituted community -property. That all of' the -property held by the plaintiff is held for the community, -and is the product of the joint labor and endeavor of plaintiff and defendant;”

' And in another part, of (he answer and cross-petition i.t is alleged:

“Defendant further alleges that by the laws of Texas all property acquired outside of the state of Texas with community funds, or. community property, becomes community property and .(hat each of the parties has an undivided interest in common in such property, and that the interest of each is a vested interest.. That it is the law of Texas that neither of the parties to a marriage is entitled to permanent alimony on a divorce being granted, but that the community property is to be equally divided, and partilioned between the parties.”

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1923 OK 238, 215 P. 208, 89 Okla. 237, 1923 Okla. LEXIS 1056, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gray-v-gray-okla-1923.