Henry v. Henry

100 N.E.2d 283, 59 Ohio Law. Abs. 494, 46 Ohio Op. 365, 1951 Ohio App. LEXIS 735
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedMay 11, 1951
DocketNo. 611
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 100 N.E.2d 283 (Henry v. Henry) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Henry v. Henry, 100 N.E.2d 283, 59 Ohio Law. Abs. 494, 46 Ohio Op. 365, 1951 Ohio App. LEXIS 735 (Ohio Ct. App. 1951).

Opinion

[495]*495OPINION

By THOMPSON, J:

This action was commenced in the Common Pleas Court of Huron County, by petition of the plaintiff wife, seeking divorce, custody of minor child and alimony. From the alimony, property and support provisions of the trial court’s: decree granting a divorce to the plaintiff, she has appealed' to this Court on questions of law.

Plaintiff urges that the property and support provisions, of the trial court’s decree were grossly inadequate and inequitable. To decide this question, a somewhat detailed statement of the facts contained in the voluminous record becomes necessary.

The parties were married in 1924, shortly after the plaintiff graduated from Columbia University, and the defendant from the University of Illinois. At the time of the marriage, plaintiff’s family was one of means. Defendant had worked his way through college and brought to the marriage no financial assets other than a Ford automobile and a few hundred dollars, but what he lacked in financial backing he apparently made up in ambition, willingness to work and initiative. For a wedding present, plaintiff’s father gave the parties a home costing $5300.00 and when this home was sold in 1937 for $7500.00, the defendant testified he gave one-half of the proceeds to his wife and kept one-half for himself.

Prior to the engagement, the defendant was working in a near-by city. Shortly after the engagement, and a few months before the marriage, the defendant, having impressed himself upon his future father-in-law, the latter secured a more attractive position for the defendant with a manufacturing concern in which plaintiff’s father was financially interested. Defendant’s salary there at the time of the marriage was $165.00 per month. About two months after the marriage, plaintiff’s father offered the defendant a position with the local telephone company of which he was president and principal stockholder. At this time, in 1924, what is referred to as the telephone company, actually comprised eight separate telephone companies with plant assets of approximately one and a half millón dollars, serving 15,648 customers.

Defendant’s first position with the telephone’ company was selling advertising. Within a matter of months, the de[496]*496fendant having shown aptitude and ability in the business, he was promoted by his father-in-law and given the title of assistant secretary and assistant treasurer. By 1927 he was secretary and treasurer for the eight companies which were operated as separate corporations out of one office. In that year these eight companies were merged into one telephone company and the defendant became assistant to the president as well as secretary and treasurer. Upon merger, the value of the total property and plant of the company was fixed by the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio at $3,360,600.00.

In 1929, defendant became General Manager. During the period of merging of the various telephone companies, and subsequently, as additional properties were purchased, the defendant with the active help and suggestion of his father-in-law, who was constantly buying stock for purposes of investment and control, had numerous opportunities to buy up stock of certain of the companies being purchased. . Defendant’s Exhibit 21, and his testimony shows he acquired, for example, sixteen shares of local telephone company stock at $3.00 per share, and Wood County Telephone Company .stock to the extent of 83-% shares at $3.00 per share, after his engagement and while working for his father-in-law, which investment he now values at $9975.00 as a -result of conversion rights. The low prices at which he purchased and the great opportunity afforded the defendant may be gathered from the testimony in his deposition that as early as 1927 and while still obviously drawing a modest salary, he emerged from the merger with some 12,000 to 15,000 shares of stock in the new telephone company. With this start, and with additional buying of stock of the company, over the years, and the receipt of stock dividends and the exercise of stock purchase rights, the defendant today has reached the point at which he is the largest individual stockholder of the telephone company, owning outright a total of 31,781 shares of common stock and 219 shares of preferred stock of the telephone company. One" of the transactions whereby defendant acquired the equivalent of 4050 shares will be subsequently examined in some detail.

Returning to plaintiff and her family situation, it is to be noted that plaintiff was one of five daughters, the other four of whom had married professional men; one a professor, another an engineer, another a dentist, another a lawyer. Of the sons-in-law, the defendant was the only one in business and it was natural for plaintiff’s father to look to him to carry on the family business since he had no sons. Plaintiff’s father, however, was always primarily interested in the welfare of his five daughters, and after his first wife’s [497]*497death, being the then owner of the majority of the telephone company stock, he established five inter vivos trusts, one for each daughter and her heirs. These trusts were created on December 28, 1935. It is significant that before creating these trusts, plaintiff’s father had a talk with the plaintiff to learn how matters were going with her and her husband, because he was debating whether to make the defendant one of the two co-trustees of these five trusts. Plaintiff’s testimony on this subject is as follows:

“Dad came to me before he set up the trusts and said to me, ‘Is everything going all right between you and Cap?’ because dad had said to me at other times, T don’t know how you do it, Alice, sometimes but you seem to go along with Cap fine.’ I said, ‘Dad, everything will be all right.’ ”

As a result of plaintiff’s acquiescence, her father made the defendant and his lawyer son-in-law co-trustees of each of the five trusts. Each trust was substantially the same in terms, except for the different beneficiaries, each trust containing the same number of shares of telephone company stock, namely, 800 shares. Upon the father’s death in 1937, his will added 820 shares to each trust, making 1620 shares in each. None of the trusts has ever had any other assets except telephone company stock, and the dividends accruing thereon. The co-trustees pay the respective income beneficiaries the quarterly dividends paid by the company. Under the terms of the trust set up for the plaintiff, the trust is to terminate only when both of the co-trustees have died, or when all of the telephone company stock in the trust has been sold, whichever shall be the first event to occur. The co-trustees are given authority to sell the stock, but permitted to make a sale of not less than all; the stock may not be sold in part only. No stock is to be distributed to any beneficiary prior to the decease of the two co-trustees. So far as the plaintiff is concerned, she receives the income during her lifetime, unless the trust terminates prior thereto on one of the two bases noted. Upon her death, if the trust is still in existence, the defendant is to receive one-third of all the income for his lifetime, or until the trust is terminated, but only so long as he remains the widower of the plaintiff. Plaintiff’s children and grandchildren, per stirpes, are given all of the trust income not given to the plaintiff or her husband, until such time as the trust terminates.

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Related

Henry v. Henry
157 Ohio St. (N.S.) 319 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1952)

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Bluebook (online)
100 N.E.2d 283, 59 Ohio Law. Abs. 494, 46 Ohio Op. 365, 1951 Ohio App. LEXIS 735, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/henry-v-henry-ohioctapp-1951.