Kelley v. Kelley

191 P.2d 656, 183 Or. 169, 1948 Ore. LEXIS 170
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 19, 1948
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 191 P.2d 656 (Kelley v. Kelley) 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
Kelley v. Kelley, 191 P.2d 656, 183 Or. 169, 1948 Ore. LEXIS 170 (Or. 1948).

Opinion

ROSSMAN, C. J.

This is an appeal by the defendant from a decree of the circuit court which (1) adjudged that a decree of divorce granted the defendant from the plaintiff in the state of Nevada was void; (2) awarded the plaintiff from the defendant a separation from bed and board; and (3) ordered the defendant to pay $10 monthly towards the support of the plaintiff. The appellant (husband) and respondent (wife) were married October 19,1935, in the state of Washington. Both were domiciled in Oregon. In December, 1938, the appellant deserted the respondent. June 14, 1939, the respondent filed in the Circuit Court for Multnomah County a petition which prayed for an order requiring the appellant to contribute to her support. After issue had been joined and a trial had been had the circuit court entered a decree October 26, 1939, awarding the respondent support money. January 16, 1945, *172 the appellant left Oregon and went to Nevada where, on April 17, 1945, he was given a decree of divorce from the respondent. Immediately after the entry of the decree he returned to Oregon. June 6,1945, the respondent instituted this suit. It is based upon a charge of desertion. The appellant does not challenge the sufficiency of the evidence which proves the desertion.

The appellant presents two assignments of error. The first is:

“It was error to admit any evidence in support of the complaint and to enter a decree in favor of the respondent for separate maintenance. Bespondent’s motion for judgment of dismissal on the pleadings should have been granted.”

The following is the second assignment of error:

“It was error to set aside the Nevada decree.”

In support of the first assignment of error, the appellant argues that the decree entered October 26, 1939, which ordered him to contribute toward his wife’s support estops her from maintaining this suit. He says:

“An examination of the two complaints shows that the cause of suit and the relief sought are substantially identical in the two cases. * * The adjudication in the first suit is a complete bar to the maintenance of the present suit.”

When the suit was filed which terminated in the decree of October 26, 1939, a section of our laws read as follows:

“It shall be lawful for any married woman to apply to the circuit court of the county in which she resides for an order upon her husband to provide for her support.” §63-212, O. C. L. A.

*173 Section 63-213 said:

“Her petition shall set forth the facts and circumstances upon which she relies for such order, and if it shall appear to the court, after hearing the parties, that said husband is able to support or contribute to the support of his wife and said children, if any, and that he neglects or refuses to perform his duty in that respect, the court shall have power to make such decree as to the support of said wife and children, if any, by said husband as shall be suitable * *

Sections 63-214 and 63-215 delineated the practice in support proceedings'. The four sections just mentioned were adopted in 1889 and repealed in 1941. It is seen from the foregoing that the wife, in order to obtain a decree for support money, was required to prove that her husband was able to contribute and that he neglected to do so. She was required to prove no other delict. See Kiessenbeck v. Kiessenbeck, 145 Or. 82, 26 P. (2d) 58.

The support statute which we just reviewed was repealed by 1941 Oregon Laws, chapter 408, which, in addition to effecting the repeal, authorized the circuit court to enter decrees for the separation of married persons from bed and board. The 1941 act, however, did not repeal §§ 63-216 to and including 63-218, O. C. L. A., which, as said in Noble v. Noble, 164 Or. 538, 103 P. (2d) 293, relate “to the same subject” as the repealed sections. We leave unmentioned the sections of our laws which authorize divorces a vinculo matrimonii, for they are not germane to this suit.

Permanent separation from bed and board under the 1941 act may be decreed if the wrongful spouse is guilty of adultery. Separation may be ordered for a limited or an unlimited period upon a finding of willful desertion, conviction of a felony, habitual gross *174 drunkenness or cruel treatment. The act authorizes the court to grant incidental relief, not only in the final decree, but also pendente lite. For instance, the final decree may include provisions for the custody of minor children and their maintenance, for the recovery from the party in fault of contributions for the support of the other, for the delivery to either party of personal effects in the possession of the other and for the appointment of trustees to collect and invest money decreed for the maintenance of either spouse. Another provision says:

“Whenever a decree of permanent separation from bed and board shall have been granted, the party at whose prayer such decree shall have been granted in all cases shall be entitled to the undivided third part in his or her individual right in fee of the whole of the real property owned by the other at the time of such decree.”

In order to avoid the use of misleading terms, we shall speak of proceedings instituted under § 63-212 as support-money proceedings, and of suits filed under the 1941 act as separation proceedings.

It will be observed that § 63-212 permitted a proceeding for support money to be instituted only by a wife, but the remedy afforded by the 1941 act is not restricted to her. It will further be observed from §63-212 et seq. that those sections confined their remedy to an award of support money and, as already indicated, required the wife to submit no proof of delict upon her husband’s part except (a) ability to provide support, and (b) neglect to do so. Upon the other hand, the 1941 act offers a remedy absent from § 63-212 — separation—and embraces orders for support money as only ancillary. Still another difference between the two acts is the fact that a wife who sues *175 for separation must allege and prove that her husband was guilty of one or more of the delicts specified in the 1941 act.

Although the distinctions between the two acts of which we have taken note are important, we shall now mention another which is fundamental. An order for maintenance, entered pursuant to § 68-212, did not impair the marital relationship nor lessen in any degree the rights and duties resulting therefrom. Husband and wife could still cohabit. A decree entered under the 1941 act, upon the other hand, greatly impairs the marriage relationship. It is in the nature of a limited divorce. It is true that the 1941 act preserves the bonds of matrimony and does not remove the wedding ring from the finger where it was placed when the solemn vows were exchanged; but the ring, after the entry of a decree of separation a mensa et thoro, no longer is a token of plighted troth; after the entry of the decree it is a reminder of the restrictions which arise out of the marriage relationship.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
191 P.2d 656, 183 Or. 169, 1948 Ore. LEXIS 170, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kelley-v-kelley-or-1948.