Hengen v. Hengen

166 P. 525, 85 Or. 155, 1917 Ore. LEXIS 306
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 17, 1917
StatusPublished
Cited by27 cases

This text of 166 P. 525 (Hengen v. Hengen) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hengen v. Hengen, 166 P. 525, 85 Or. 155, 1917 Ore. LEXIS 306 (Or. 1917).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Burnett

delivered the opinion of the court.

The parties were married in Denver, Colorado, April 16, 1900, and after a married life of increasing rancor finally separated in Chicago, September 13, 1910. The plaintiff is a promoter. When he married her the defendant was a manicurist. As a side-light upon the dramatis personae we note that the plaintiff offered proof on cross-examination of the defendant and she admitted that prior to their marriage they made a trip from Denver to New York and back as man and wife about February, 1900. With this advertisement of each other’s characters and propensities it is not to be wondered that each was suspicious of the other. In the view we take of this case it is not requisite that we should undertake to justify her conduct in any respect.

It is practically undisputed on the part of the plaintiff that he was exceedingly strict with the defendant and watched with the eye of a lynx everything she did in which other men were concerned and taunted her frequently with the fact that he had a blonde beauty who was waiting for him and would take up with him at any time. She gives much evidence of his intimacy with other women in ways that were at least questionable and indiscreet. She testifies that on one occasion she learned he had registered with another woman at the Palmer House in Chicago as G-. B. Hengen and wife; that she went there and after some difficulty succeeded in gaining entrance into a bedroom where she found him and one Lillian Koch together. His account of this affair is to the effect that he became [159]*159acquainted with. Miss Koch through the fact that her sister Florence was a stenographer in the employ of himself and a business associate in Chicago and that Lillian wanted to secure permanent employment and telephoned him to meet her at the Palmer House one evening about 7 o’clock for a conference on the subject. Without the knowledge of the defendant he went to meet that appointment and after conversing a while with the girl in one of the parlors of the hotel a great many people came' in there for shelter from a sudden downpour of rain. He says it then occurred to him that it would not look well for him to be seen conversing with an unmarried woman under such circumstances and in such a place and to avoid the apparent impropriety he registered as B. B. Hengen and secured a private bedroom to which he took her. He claims that the door was open and the blinds up so that people could readily see into the room and that himself and the young woman were fully dressed. He is contradicted in material particulars by the defendant’s evidence to the effect that the door was closed and locked and that when entrance to the room was effected after some delay he was found with his coat off. Another time the defendant went to his office and found the door locked, but could see through the frosted glass that he was walking back and forth inside. She also saw a woman moving around in the same room and after a time she secured admission and discovered him there with Lillian Koch and her sister. A scene ensued resulting in some uproar when he seized her violently and as she says dragged her across the room into an inner office. He admits quarreling with her and says he only pushed her into the room.

It appears that the friction between the two began almost immediately after the marriage. They seem [160]*160to have separated two or three times before the final disruption. She went one time from Chicago to Colorado. The plaintiff was asked:

“What was the cause of her leaving and what did she say when she left?”

He answered:

“We had our usual quarrels; she had nagged and nagged until we had a general row and it seemed that the only thing I could do was to get out and get away; the lease being pretty near up anyway, and the people had returned and wanted their flat, and we settled up there and she was going home to her people in Colorado and she left.”

Speaking of an occasion in which he came home in an automobile he says:

“Mrs. Hengen immediately accused me of having the chauffeur drive me to a house of ill-fame, and I denied it and we had a quarrel and she got up and reared around.
“Q. What did she do?
“A. She holloed and I feared that the neighbors all through the block would come in.
“Q. Had you touched her or anything?
“A. I had not touched her. I finally made up my mind — I had some pride — I made up my mind if there was going to be a scene I would get out so the matter would not attract attention. And she ranted around there and I got up to go out and she tried to keep me from going out of the front door fifteen or twenty feet from where I stood and I shoved her aside a like that [indicating] and I went out and she screamed and before I got halfway downstairs people in the same building — (that entrance that I went out of I think served six people), so some of those people came out to see what the trouble was; I was well ashamed of having anything occur at my home that attracted attention and I went out and went away.
“Q. Did you strike her at that time?
[161]*161“A. No, sir.
“Q. She claims her lips were cut and arms bruised.
“A. She fell against a book case in the hallway.
. “Q. Did you strike her?
“A. No, sir. I pushed her away so I could go out.”

Her story of this occurrence is that he knocked her down with his fist. A neighbor and his wife came in a few minutes after the plaintiff left on this occasion and testify that her lip was cut and bleeding and her arm was skinned and bleeding from the wrist to the elbow. He gives also the following testimony:

“Q. You do not claim that you are free from resenting these things when she accused you of them? You resented the accusations?
“A. I certainly did.
“Q. Did you call her any bad names?
“A. You know what you would do in a quarrel, you will say a good many things. I don’t know that I used any profanity. You know what you would do when you have had a quarrel.
“Q. * * "Would you say that she lied?
“A. Yes, sir; I may say she lied because she did lie. *
“Q. Did you ever accuse her of adultery or anything of that kind?
“A.. I don’t think I did.”

He admits going to Chicago Heights with Lillian Koch and this was one of the elements of the altercation in his office where he shoved the defendant into an inner room. He also concedes that he went alone to the Hilker residence to play cards with Mrs. Hilker and met her by appointment at a hotel in Chicago. There is much evidence of his being very attentive to a Miss Mills at various times in the afternoons and late at night. The defendant and her sister testify that Mrs. Hilker confessed to them that she had committed adultery with the plaintiff and as a result had [162]*162procured an abortion to be performed upon herself. It is said in Wheeler v. Wheeler, 18 Or. 261 (24 Pac.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
166 P. 525, 85 Or. 155, 1917 Ore. LEXIS 306, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hengen-v-hengen-or-1917.