Hunter v. Hunter

286 S.W. 257, 1926 Tex. App. LEXIS 1018
Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided June 8, 1926·No. No. 1409.·Published·Cited by 7 cases

Opinion

HI'GHTOWER, C. J.

The defendant in error, who, for brevity, will be hereinafter called appellee, as plaintiff below filed this suit in one of the district courts of Harris county against the plaintiff in error, who. will hereinafter be called appellant, praying for a decree of divorce and for the partition of alleged community property. Appellant answered by general demurrer and general denial, and then by way of cross-action prayed for a divorce against appellee. When the case was called for trial, judgment was rendered by the court, granting to appellee a divorce and decreeing that a certain piece of property was community property, and the same was ordered sold, and the proceeds distributed between the parties; the sale being made through a receiver.

At the trial appellant, notwithstanding she had answered and filed her cross-action, did not appear, but thereafter filed her application in due time for writ of error, and has duly challenged by proper assignment of error the correctness of the trial court’s judgment in granting to appellee, as plaintiff below, the divorce prayed for by him. The one contention advanced by appellant for reversal is, in substance, that appellee’s petition, as plaintiff below, failed to show that he had resided in Harris county, whore the suit was filed for 6 months next preceding the filing of his suit, and that, therefore, no jurisdiction was shown in the trial court to grant the divorce in favor of appellee as was done.

As we understand the position of counsel for appellee in this court, they do not contend that appellee’s petition as plaintiff below was sufficient to show jurisdiction in the trial court to grant the divorce to him, but they do contend that the court acquired jurisdiction to grant a divorce to appellee because appellant answered and defended the suit and then filed a cross-action for divorce. The exact counter proposition advanced by counsel for appellee is:

“Where the defendant in the court below, who is plaintiff in error here, has filed an answer in the trial court, consisting of.a general demurrer and general denial, and has reconvened and prayed for a divorce, after setting up fully the grounds therefor, this -gives the trial court jurisdiction to hear and determine all matters in controversy between the parties hereto.”

The jurisdictional allegation contained in the petition of the appellee as plaintiff below was as follows:

“That plaintiff is an actual bona fide inhabitant of Texas and has been such continuously for more than 12 months before the filing of this suit and has resided in Harris county, Tex., continuously for more than 6 months before the filing of this suit, and that defendant resides at No. 1512 Summer street, Houston, Tex.”

Article 4631, Revised Statutes 1925, provides:

“No suit for divorce shall be maintained in the courts of this state unless the petitioner for such divorce shall at the time of exhibiting' his or her petition, be an actual bona fide inhabitant of this state for a period of twelve months, and shall have resided in the county where the suit is filed for six months next preceding the filing of same.”

It seems that the appellate courts of this state, whenever called upon to construe this statute, have held that, in order to maintain a suit for divorce by the plaintiff, his or her petition must show affirmatively that he or she, as the case may be, had been at the time the suit was filed an actual bona fide inhabitant of this state for 12 months, and that he or she had resided in the county where the *258 suit Vas filed for 6 months next preceding the filing of the petition. It seems that, if either of these essential allegations was lacking in the petition, it has been held that no jurisdiction was shown in the trial court to grant to the plaintiff a decree of divorce. Haymond v. Haymond, 74 Tex. 414, 12 S. W. 90; Bruner v. Bruner (Tex. Civ. App.) 43 S. W. 796; Dickinson v. Dickinson (Tex. Civ. App.) 138 S. W. 203; Gallagher v. Gallagher (Tex. Civ. App.) 214 S. W. 516; Michael v. Michael, 34 Tex. Civ. App. 630, 79 S. W. 75; Forsythe v. Forsythe (Tex. Civ. App.) 149 S. W. 198; Gould v. Gould (Tex. Civ App.) 244 S. W. 574; De Arment v. De Arment (Tex. Civ. App.) 249 S. W. 1088.

It will be seen from our quotation of the jurisdictional allegation in the plaintiffs petition in this case that there was no allegation that he had resided in Harris county, where the suit- was filed, at the time of its filing for the 6 months next preceding the filing. He did allege that he had resided in Harris county for 6 months continuously before he filed the suit, but whether that 6 months of continuous residence in Harris county was the 6 months next preceding the filing of the suit, the petition does not show. It may be true that the appellee, at the time he filed this suit as the plaintiff, had at some time during the last preceding 12 months resided in Harris county continuously for a period of 6 months. So far as the petition shows, he might have resided in Harris county continuously for the first 6 months during, the preceding 12 months before the suit was filed, and yet the court would have no jurisdiction as to the plaintiff’s case if such were the facts. The courts, it seems, construe this statute very strictly, and hold uniformly that the actual bona fide inhabitance for 12 months in the state and the actual residence within the county of the forum invoked for 6 months next preceding the filing of the suit must both be affirmatively alleged and sustained by proof before the trial court is authorized to grant to the plaintiff a divorce.

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Hunter v. Hunter, 286 S.W. 257, 1926 Tex. App. LEXIS 1018 (Tex. Ct. App. 1926).

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