Hudspeth v. Hudspeth

206 S.W.2d 863, 1947 Tex. App. LEXIS 813
Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided November 24, 1947·No. No. 5827·Published·Cited by 24 cases

Opinion

PITTS, Chief Justice.

This case was before this Court on a former appeal reported in 198 S.W.2d 768 in which Jack Hudspeth was the appellant and Elizabeth Hudspeth was the appellee. In that hearing the issues were presented to the trial court without a jury on an alternative plea for either the annulment of a ceremonial marriage or for a divorce and in either event for the adjudication of property rights. As a result of that hearing the trial court entered a judgment annulling the marriage and decreed certain property to be that of appellee Elizabeth Hudspeth. On that appeal this Court held that it was not shown that Bertie Lee Hudspeth, the former wife of appellant Jack Hudspeth, had not obtained a divorce from him or that their marriage was not annulled; that the second marriage was legally presumed to be valid until rebutted by sufficient evidence to negative the effective operation of every possible means by which a dissolution of the prior marriage could have taken place and that the burden of proof was upon appellee. Elizabeth Hudspeth to satisfactorily establish the fact that the first marriage had not been dissolved. We reversed the judgment of the trial court .because the-said appellee had failed to discharge the burden of proof required of her by law and we further discussed the law governing the property rights in case a divorce, should be granted in another hearing. ,

At a subsequent hearing which ‘ be-' gan on June 12, 1947, from which this appeal was perfected, a divorce was not granted but an annulment of a ceremonial, marriage was decreed as a result of newr pleadings filed by appellee and a different statement of facts presented and as a result of jury findings favorable to appellee made in answer to six issues submitted to-it by the trial court.

Appellee filed this suit on February 6,' 1946, and pleaded in- her amended petition filed April 30, 1947, a ceremonial marriage: between her and appellant performed on September 18, 1938, and that they lived together until March, 1944, but that such-purported marriage was bigamous, null and void because of a former marriage of. appellant that had never been dissolved-until August, 1946, several months after this suit had been filed; that his former' wife was still living and that appellee had no knowledge of appellant’s former mar--riage until about the time she filed this suit. • She prayed for annulment' of the marriage, for the restoration of her former name, and for title to her separate-property. Appellant answered with a general denial except as to certain admissions' made and pleaded that he entered into said marriage with appellee in good faith believing his first wife had been divorced from him. He further pleaded that he found it necessary to travel to various, parts of the country during his marriage to appellee in order to engage in his profession as a driller or welder and that on various occasions he sent money to appel-[866] lee, the exact total sum of which was riot known to him but that it was in excess of $20,000 and had been commingled with other funds belonging to appellee; that he and appellee owned a community estate, the nature and value of which he was not in position to state but that appellee knew the nature and the value thereof. He pleaded in a cross-action that appellee be denied all the relief prayed for and that he be granted a divorce from her on the grounds of cruel treatment. He further prayed for a court order in any event requiring appellee to account for the money he had sent to her and for all community property and for judgment awarding to him his interest therein.

The material findings of the jury were in effect that appellant had not been divorced from his former wife when he married appellee; that appellant knew or should in good faith have known that his former wife had not procured a divorce from him prior to his marriage to appel-lee; that appellant did not in good faith believe he had secured a divorce from his former wife when he married appellee; that appellant had no money on deposit in his own name in any bank in Texas or at any place on the west coast of the United States at or just prior to the filing of this suit; that appellee came into possession of individual separate monies belonging to her in her own right during her ceremonial marriage to appellant; that an automobile and the Ritz Theater in Lubbock, Texas, were purchased by appellee with her own separate money; that appellant did not send any money to appellee during their ceremonial marriage; that appel-lee’s separate funds were never so commingled or mixed with any funds in which appellant had an interest until their identity could not be traced. The jury made other findings favorable to appellee’s alleged cause of action that are not material to this appeal.

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Hudspeth v. Hudspeth, 206 S.W.2d 863, 1947 Tex. App. LEXIS 813 (Tex. Ct. App. 1947).

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