Lindahl v. Lindahl

19 Wis. 2d 379
CourtWisconsin Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 5, 1963
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 19 Wis. 2d 379 (Lindahl v. Lindahl) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wisconsin Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lindahl v. Lindahl, 19 Wis. 2d 379 (Wis. 1963).

Opinions

Dieterich, J.

The complaint alleges that the parties were married at Osceola, Wisconsin, on March 26, 1937. The issue of the marriage is one child, Kathy Lucille Lindahl, born March 7, 1942.

Demand was made by the defendant upon the plaintiff for a bill of particulars showing all facts, incidents, reasons, and basis upon which the plaintiff’s cause of action of cruel and inhuman treatment is based.

The bill of particulars alleged that over a long period of time defendant has been unco-operative with the plaintiff and has not exhibited any love or affection for her; that the defendant has manifested an attitude of indifference and dislike toward plaintiff and has treated her with contempt; that defendant has wrongfully distrusted plaintiff and has wrongfully and without cause accused her of infidelity; that defendant is possessed of a violent and uncontrollable temper; that defendant has repeatedly told the plaintiff that she was “unbalanced” and “mentally unsound,” and that she should not waste money going to college for teacher training because she was “crazy” and “sick” and would never be hired; that defendant has in various and devious ways attempted to disturb and alarm plaintiff so as to make her nervous and upset; that defendant has for the past several years drunk intoxicants to excess and has been drunk at least every weekend, to the embarrassment and worry of plaintiff; that all of said conduct has caused the plaintiff to be nervous and upset and has prevented her from eating and sleeping properly and has interfered with her health, so that she has [382]*382been under the care of a doctor, and said conduct has caused plaintiff pain, humiliation, and suffering in body and mind.

The defendant in his answer denies having sufficient information upon which to form a belief as to the allegations that are the grounds for the action by way of cruel and inhuman treatment and puts the plaintiff to her proof thereof and specifically denies that he has been unco-operative with the plaintiff and has not exhibited any love and affection for her, that he has manifested a dislike for ■ her and has treated her with contempt, that he has wrongfully distrusted the plaintiff and has wrongfully without cause accused her of infidelity, that defendant is possessed of a violent and uncontrollable temper; that the defendant has told the plaintiff that she was “unbalanced,” and “mentally unsound,” and . that he has in various ways attempted to disturb and alarm the plaintiff, and specifically denies that the allegation in her bill of particulars that he has prevented her from eating and sleeping and has interfered with her health So that she has been under the care of a doctor, or that the defendant has caused the plaintiff pain, humiliation, and suffering. The defendant admits that the parties are possessed of many items of real and personal property and alleges that most of the property was .acquired by the defendant prior to the marriage of the parties.

Trial was had to the court without a jury on the 13th day of October, 1961. The trial court in its memorandum opinion stated as follows:

“This is an action for absolute divorce. The plaintiff asks for divorce on the grounds of cruel and inhuman treatment. The defendant opposes the granting of the divorce. The court has read the briefs of the parties. One particular part of the testimony which the court has carefully reviewed most certainly warrants the granting of a divorce on the grounds of cruel and inhuman treatment. The [plaintiff] testified that the [defendant] would urinate around the [383]*383bedroom and on the sewing machine and that this matter started in 1943, and has continued ever since, becoming much worse after the parties moved to Luck about 1951. The defendant in the testimony never did deny that he was not guilty of this type of behavior. He does deny he was frequently drunk. How any woman could put up with this type of behavior over the years is hard for this court to understand. It is certainly grounds for divorce, whether the husband was drunk or sober when he performed this type of action. Therefore, absolute divorce will be granted to the plaintiff from the defendant.”

The defendant contends that the evidence upon which the plaintiff relies in support of obtaining her divorce on the grounds of cruel and inhuman treatment requires corroboration. Sec. 247.18 (2), Stats., provides:

“Corroboration required ; defaults. . . .
“(2) No judgment of annulment, divorce, or legal separation shall be granted on the testimony of the party, unless the grounds therefor and required residence are corroborated by evidence other than the testimony of the parties, except the ground of cruel and inhuman treatment when no corroborating evidence is available. No stipulation by the parties shall satisfy the requirements of this subsection.”

Counsel for the defendant-appellant on this appeal have failed in the preparation of their brief and appendix to comply with Rule 6 (5) (c) of this court, sec. 251.26, Stats.1 The appendix does contain the memorandum opinion [384]*384of the trial court. The purpose of this rule is to enable us in the limited time available to give due consideration to all the-cases presented to us. Dziengel v. Dziengel (1955), 269 Wis. 591, 70 N. W. (2d) 21. The rule under such circumstances is that this court will assume that- the record supports the trial court’s findings of fact. Peterson Cutting Die Co. v. Bach Sales Co. (1955), 269 Wis., 113, 68 N. W. (2d) 804, and Boyle v. Industrial Comm. (1959), 8 Wis; (2d) 601, 99 N. W. (2d) 702.

Whether corroboration of testimony is required is not a question of fact, but one of law and thus appellant’s failure to make a proper appendix does not preclude a review of this issue. The conduct of defendant-appellant upon which the trial court found reason to grant an absolute divorce to plaintiff was by its very nature the type of conduct for which corroboration would not be available. Defendant did not deny this conduct and in view of the fact that this is a contested divorce such failure to deny will be regarded as sufficient corroboration to support the judgment. Swenson v. Swenson (1944), 245 Wis. 124, 13 N. W. (2d) 531.

The appellant-defendant further contends that the property division is not entirely based upon fact, but based upon speculation and bias, and is contrary to, law. The division of property is a question of fact and, failure to make a proper appendix would warrant an assumption . by this court that the record supports the trial court’s findings of fact. However, in the instant case the appellant included, in addition to a statement of facts, schedules of the property owned by the defendant-appellant at the time of the marriage and the property owned by both parties at the time of the divorce. These schedules contain frequent references to the relevant pages in the record. Although this court does not condone the substitution of schedules for án appendix and the violation of its rules, nevertheless we will [385]*385in this case exercise our discretion and review the property division made by the trial court.

The testimony reveals the following facts: The defendant at the time of the marriage was a widower thirty-seven years of age and possessed a certain amount of property, to wit:

Home. $3,000
One-half interest in bulk-oil business.... 3,000

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

State v. Nielsen
2011 WI 94 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 2011)
Bussewitz v. Bussewitz
248 N.W.2d 417 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1977)
Parsons v. Parsons
229 N.W.2d 629 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1975)
Seiler v. Seiler
180 N.W.2d 627 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1970)
Leeder v. Leeder
176 N.W.2d 262 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1970)
Jacobs v. Jacobs
167 N.W.2d 238 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1969)
Berlinski v. Telisky
168 N.W.2d 925 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1968)
Dutcher v. Phoenix Insurance
155 N.W.2d 609 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1968)
Martinson v. Brooks Equipment Leasing, Inc.
152 N.W.2d 849 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1967)
Lindahl v. Lindahl
19 Wis. 2d 379 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1963)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
19 Wis. 2d 379, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lindahl-v-lindahl-wis-1963.