Leslie v. Leslie

11 Abb. Pr. 311
CourtNew York Court of Common Pleas
DecidedMay 15, 1871
StatusPublished

This text of 11 Abb. Pr. 311 (Leslie v. Leslie) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Court of Common Pleas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Leslie v. Leslie, 11 Abb. Pr. 311 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1871).

Opinion

J. F. Daly, J.

On July 23, 1868, an order was made by this court allowing the defendant a counsel fee of five hundred dollars, and alimony pendente lite of fifty dollars per week. The plaintiff did not comply with that order until April 3, 1371, when he paid to defendant nearly ten thousand dollars for the arrears of alimony, the counsel fee of five hundred dollars, and . one hundred and fifty dollars taxable costs of appeals to the general term and the court of appeals from orders which will be alluded to hereafter.

The defendant now asks the court for an order directing an additional counsel fee of five thousand dollars, to be allowed her to conduct her defense.

It is impossible to say whether she could have saved anything from this weekly sum if paid weekly to her, so that, as her counsel remarks, the amount now in her hands should be regarded as involuntary saving, induced by the neglect of the plaintiff to pay.

I will, however, take the matter into consideration upon this motion to this extent: I will regard the defendant as being in a position of pecuniary ability to sustain unsupported the expense of any extraordinary litigation, she may desire to indulge in as part of her defense, but I will not deprive her of the benefit of the counsel fee originally allowed her, on July 23, 1868, for conducting her defense, and which must have been exhausted before this time though no fault of hers. I therefore allow the defendant an additional counsel fee [313]*313of five hundred dollars, the action being for an absolute divorce.

On this application the propriety of the allowance made by the court in 1868, for counsel fee cannot be questioned, and it must be deemed to be settled, that in so far as the cost of conducting the defense is concerned, judged by the ordinary cost of conducting such a defense, and the amount of professional labor required, the sum allowed for counsel fee, at that time was sufficient; and as I cannot find from the papers that that sum was allowed for legal expenses up to that time only, or for any prescribed period, it must be deemed decisive of the amount needed for the litigation up to the trial.

But this, as I have said, must have been allowed as the ordinary cost of an ordinary litigation; if after the order of July 23, 1868, was made, the proceeding took a shape unusual and unexpected, and this without the act or consent of the defendant, I consider the court is not justified in refusing to hear an application for additional counsel fee on account of the additional professional labor devolving upon the defense.

The papers before me show such a state of facts. The plaintiff appealed from the order of July 23, 1868, allowing defendant alimony and counsel fee.

The general term of this court, on May 18, 1869, affirmed said order. The plaintiff then attempted to discontinue this action by paying the taxable costs only (something less than fifty dollars), and obtained an ex-parte order to that effect, which was served six months after the above affirmance by the general "term. The defendant moved to vacate such order of discontinuance, and the special term of this court granted the motion. The plaintiff appealed to the general term, but the order appealed from was affirmed.

The plaintiff then appealed to the court of appeals, [314]*314and the court of appeals affirmed the order of the general term.

After this the plaintiff paid up the alimony and counsel fee. I must regard the attempt of the plaintiff to discontinue and so avoid the order allowing alimony and counsel fee as. a novel and unexpected step, outside the usual course which actions for divorce take; and not entering into the calculation of the court when the counsel fee was fixed at five hundred dollars.

The argument of the motion to set aside the discontinuance and of the appeals to the general term and to the court of appeals, involving a great amount of labor, I must consider as calculated to absorb the allowance originally made for counsel fee, and if there be no other objection to this application than the fact of a prior allowance, the motion should be entertained.

Under the authority of well known cases, it was urged by the plaintiff, that the defendant having now ample' funds in her possession to defray the expenses of her defense, she should be allowed no more for that purpose (Osgood v. Osgood, 2 Paige, 621; cases in Bishop M. & D., 394, et seq.).

It has been stated that on or about April 3, 1871, the defendant received, in gross, about ten thousand dollars, for arrears of alimony, under the order of July 23, 1868, for counsel fee under the same order, and for taxable costs, the latter amounting to some one hundred and fifty dollars. Of this sum, she has still several thousand dollars in her possession.

She was to have been paid fifty dollars per week, and while the alimony remained unpaid, had to support herself as best she might.

II. May 24,1871. Motion by plaintiff for an order—

1. Settling the issues to be tried by a jury.

2. Allowing plaintiff to file a note of issue with the same effect as if filed before the present term.

[315]*3153. That the clerk put this case on the calendar in the place it would have occupied if regularly placed thereon for the present term.

4. Setting down this action for a special day for trial.

In this action, which, as above stated, was for an absolute divorce on the ground of adultery, the answer set up adultery of the plaintiff, and asked affirmative relief by decree of absolute divorce.

The defendant opposed the present (plaintiff’s) motion:

1. As to settling the issues,—urging that the acts of adultery charged in the complaint ás committed with one Croxson, in this State, had been condoned; and that, as to those charged with Croxson in Boston, the court has no jurisdiction; and as to both, that the statute of limitations was a bar to them, they having been committed seventeen years before the commencement of this action.

2. As to settling the issues raised by the amended answer,—that no reply was served to the amended answer, and that the reply served to the original answer does not put in issue any matters of the amended answer identical with the answer originally served.

3. As to placing this cause on the calendar and setting it down for trial,—that no notice of trial had been regularly served, as the issues were not settled, and that if it were matter of discretion, the defendant should not be forced to trial at this time without preparation.

John McKeon & Campbell, for plaintiff.

Mr. Boardman, for defendant.

Joseph F. Daly, J.

On this motion I am not in my opinion called upon to decide—

1. Whether the statute of limitations bars any re[316]*316lief to plaintiff on account of any of the adulteries set forth in the complaint.

2. Whether there is any statute of limitation applicable to such matters, except that contained, impliedly, in the statute requiring the plaintiff to show that five years have not elapsed since the discovery by him of the acts of adultery.

3.

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Bluebook (online)
11 Abb. Pr. 311, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/leslie-v-leslie-nyctcompl-1871.