Hunt Ex Rel. Hunt v. Chang

594 P.2d 118, 60 Haw. 608, 1979 Haw. LEXIS 120
CourtHawaii Supreme Court
DecidedApril 19, 1979
DocketNO. 6197
StatusPublished
Cited by29 cases

This text of 594 P.2d 118 (Hunt Ex Rel. Hunt v. Chang) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Hawaii Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hunt Ex Rel. Hunt v. Chang, 594 P.2d 118, 60 Haw. 608, 1979 Haw. LEXIS 120 (haw 1979).

Opinion

*609 OPINION OF THE COURT BY

KOBAYASHI, J.

This is an appeal from orders of the circuit court of the first circuit, granting Elaine Chang defendant-appellee’s (appellee) motion for summary judgment against plaintiff-appellant Joan H. Hunt (appellant) and dismissing appellant’s action as next friend of James Richard Hunt II, a minor. We affirm.

ISSUES

I. Whether the trial court erred in granting appellee’s motion for summary judgment against appellant.

II. Whether the trial court erred in granting appellee’s motion to dismiss the action as to appellant, as next friend of James Richard Hunt II, a minor.

STATEMENT OF THE CASE

The appellant, individually and as next friend of James Richard Hunt II, a minor, filed a complaint, alleging alienation of affection, deprivation of affection and support, and damages suffered, in circuit court against appellee (also known as Elaine Pepitone).

Appellee filed a motion for summary judgment and/or dismissal and a memorándum in support of the motion. Appellee’s memorandum states:

There are undisputed facts . . . which preclude plaintiffs’ claim as a matter of law and entitle defendant to summary judgment.
[T]he complaint fails to state a claim on behalf of plaintiff James Richard Hunt II.

*610 An affidavit of James R. Hunt was filed.

The appellant filed an affidavit of counsel in opposition to motion for summary judgment.

Depositions of all of the parties were filed.

After a hearing, the trial court granted appellee’s motions.

STATEMENT OF FACTS

James R. Hunt is the husband of the appellant. After James Hunt’s first wife left him, James Hunt and appellant “moved in together.” James Hunt and his first wife were divorced in June, 1964. Thereafter, the appellant and James Hunt were married in June, 1964. Their son, Jimmy, was born on June 30, 1964, 29 days after their marriage.

James Hunt has had eleven jobs in eleven years. 1 He has generally been employed as a restaurant manager.

Evidence adduced showed that James Hunt was unable to serve for any length of time in any of his employments. The appellant and son, Jimmy, traveled with and/or followed James Hunt to his various new employments in several different states.

In 1971 appellant filed a divorce complaint against James Hunt in Newport Beach, California, “because of his alcoholic and gambling.” The appellant stated that James Hunt promised her that if she would “drop the divorce action he would stop drinking and gambling.” Appellant stated, “He stopped gambling, and he temporarily at least stopped drinking.”

In August or September, 1974, James Hunt came to Honolulu to work as general manager of the Oceania Floating Restaurant. Appellant and Jimmy remained in Phoenix. James Hunt told appellant he would send for them “as soon as conditions warranted.”

The appellee has been married to Dean Pepitone since September 12,1972. Dean Pepitone left appellee when James Hunt “came into the picture.”

*611 James Hunt first met appellee in October, 1974. They were introduced at the Oceania Restaurant, located in Honolulu, by mutual friends. The appellee stated that when she met James Hunt she knew he was married. James Hunt stated as follows:

Q. [W]hen did you start seeing her on a boy-girl relationship?
A. When did I — Well, the day that I met her, or the evening that I met her.

Dean Pepitone stated that appellee would go to see James Hunt “every night. ”-

In March, 1975, James Hunt moved in with appellee. By then Dean Pepitone had already moved out. At the time of the hearing James Hunt was still living with appellee. Appellee stated:

I would say he asked to live in my house on account of his financial hardship and I just don’t have the heart to refuse; and in the meantime, I enjoy his company.

The appellee supported James Hunt while he was living with her. The appellee stated that she was in the “apartment rental, income rental business, and real estate.” She further stated that a trust holds title to the apartments and real estate.

James Hunt made three or four trips abroad with appellee. In May or June, 1975, James Hunt joined appellee in Las Vegas. The appellee paid for the tickets and gave James Hunt money to use at the tables. James Hunt stated:

No, it was not prearranged in that sense that we arranged it here in Hawaii.
Mrs. Chang was on the mainland at the time, and on a telephone conversation, she had some time that she was going to Las Vegas, and I asked, “Well, I’d sure like to come over and join you there for a few days.”

On about June 6, 1975, James. Hunt was terminated from his job at the Oceania Restaurant.

On June 6,1975, appellee and James Hunt left on a trip to Europe. The trip was paid for by appellee. They returned to Honolulu approximately July 16, 1975.

*612 The appellant stated that from August, 1974, when James Hunt left Phoenix, until June, 1975, he wrote her twice a week and called her every Sunday night. James Hunt stated that he wrote appellant “two, three times a month, on the average.”

James Hunt wrote letters to his wife while he was on the trip to Europe. He stated that he mailed appellant a letter, dated June 16, 1975, from Bucharest, Rumania, telling her not to come to Honolulu and that “things were through” between them.

The appellant stated that it was when she received a letter from James Hunt from Rome, 2 dated June 16, 1975, that she first suspected that he did not want her to come and join him in Hawaii. Appellant stated as follows:

Q. So the letter from Rome was the very first time that you became aware, or became suspicious that Jim was with another person?
A. That is correct. Well, let me qualify it by saying that I knew that my husband did not have the funds to go to Europe, where I just received a letter from him.
Q. In other words, you figured it out on your own that —
A. To that extent, yes.
Q. Did you also become suspicious that there was another woman involved at that time?
A. Yes, rather, uh-huh, because of, again, the financial situation.
Q. Any other reason why you thought another woman was involved?
A. No, except that I had discovered just prior to that time, by a day or two, that Mr. Hunt had been terminated from the Oceania Restaurant.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
594 P.2d 118, 60 Haw. 608, 1979 Haw. LEXIS 120, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hunt-ex-rel-hunt-v-chang-haw-1979.