Logan v. Logan

1946 OK 145, 168 P.2d 878, 197 Okla. 88, 1946 Okla. LEXIS 478
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedApril 30, 1946
DocketNo. 32389.
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 1946 OK 145 (Logan v. Logan) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Logan v. Logan, 1946 OK 145, 168 P.2d 878, 197 Okla. 88, 1946 Okla. LEXIS 478 (Okla. 1946).

Opinion

DAVISON, J.

This appeal concerns an action between Barto Logan and Emma Eugenia Logan, otherwise known as Jean Logan, his wife, for a divorce and custody of said parties’ minor daughter, Carolyn Jean Logan. Due to Barto’s absence from the United States as a member of the United States Marine Corps, he wrote his father, J. E. Logan, to have the proceedings commenced, sending the father a personal check written on his and his wife’s joint account in a Ponca City bank for the entire balance therein of $220.39. With $60 of this sum Mr. Logan paid the wife’s attorney’s fee and made an initial court cost deposit of $10. To the petition thereafter filed on behalf of Barto Logan, as plaintiff,' a petition to make more definite and certain was filed, among other pleadings, on behalf of his wife, as defendant. After said motion was overruled, said defendant not only filed an answer and cross-petition against plaintiff asking that she be granted the divorce and custody of the child, but also named J. E. Logan as a defendant ■ and filed a cross-petition against him seeking recovery of the sum withdrawn from the parties’ joint bank account, as aforesaid.

At the trial thereafter had, Mrs. Logan interposed a demurrer to plaintiff’s evidence, but when that was overruled and an exception allowed her to said ruling, she proceeded with the introduction of evidence in her own behalf. At the close of the trial the court entered judgment denying Mrs. Logan any recovery on her cross-petition against J. E. Logan; granting her a divorce on her cross-petition against plaintiff; and awarding her custody of the child only until September 1st of that year (1945) and the summer months of subsequent years with custody in the paternal grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. J. E. Logan, from September 1, 1945, to the end of the school term in May, 1946, and the school months of subsequent years. The decree also gave both plaintiff and defendant the right of visitation at reasonable times, “even to the extent of having custody . . . over Sundays occasionally,” and reserved the right to reconsider the matter of custody upon application of either of the parties. The wife was also awarded all of the parties’ furniture and real estate, consisting of two lots in Ponca City, together with the house trailer and improvements thereon.

From said judgment and decree, Mrs. Logan has perfected this appeal, naming both her former husband and her father-in-law as defendants in error. In the interest of clarity and brevity, the husband and wife, as principal parties *90 to the action, will be referred to as plaintiff and defendant, respectively, and the father-in-law will be designated merely by name.

Defendant contends that the trial court erred in overruling her motion to make plaintiff’s petition more definite and certain. Her motion for a new trial, however, set forth only three assignments of error, as follows, to wit:

“1. That the judgment is not sustained by sufficient evidence and is contrary to law.
“2. Error of law occurring at the trial and excepted to by the defendant, Jean Logan.
“3. Error of the court in overruling the demurrer of the defendant, Jean Logan, to the evidence of plaintiff.”

Thus it will be seen that the only general ground for a new trial set forth in defendant’s motion therefor was the second one, to wit: “Error of law occurring at the trial. . .” The court’s alleged error in overruling the motion to make more definite and certain was not an error “occurring at the trial” (Belcher v. Spohn, 170 Okla. 139, 39 P. 2d 87), and it is well settled that an alleged error not called to the trial court’s attention in a motion for a new trial will not be reviewed on appeal. In this connection, see Hurt v. Garrison, 192 Okla. 66, 133 P. 2d 547; Brooks Packing Co. v. Eastman Laboratories, 187 Okla. 344, 103 P. 2d 93; Altus v. Tinsley, 185 Okla. 602, 95 P. 2d 635; Coakley v. Phelan, 179 Okla. 515, 66 P. 2d 19; Nease v. National Bank of Commerce, 174 Okla. 270, 50 P. 2d 312; Bilby v. Gibson, 133 Okla. 196, 271 P. 1026; Akin v. Bonfils, 47 Okla. 492, 150 P. 194; O’Neil v. James, 40 Okla. 661, 140 P. 141; Haynes v. Smith, 29 Okla. 703, 119 P. 246.

The defendant also contends that the court erred in overruling her demurrer to plaintiff’s evidence, but as she failed to stand on said demurrer and proceeded with the introduction of evidence after said ruling, any error the trial judge may have committed in that particular will not be considered ground for reversal, if the evidence as a whole sustains the judgment. See Merchants’ Transfer & Storage Co. v. Ft. Smith Couch & Bedding Co., 105 Okla. 195, 232 P. 79; Kali Inla Coal Co. v. Ghinelli, 55 Okla. 289, 155 P. 606; Porter v. Wilson, 39 Okla. 500, 135 P. 732; Meyer v. White, 27 Okla. 400, 112 P. 1005.

Defendant also assigns as error the trial court’s action in allowing one of the witnesses to testify that she is “temperamental.” Her counsel objected to this testimony on the ground that it was a mere conclusion of the witness and now makes the bare assertion that it was inadmissible, without setting forth supporting argument or authorities. Therefore, the contention will not be dealt with any further than to say that if such admission was error, in our opinion it was harmless, as the record discloses evidence of said defendant’s conduct that might indicate the same trait and it does not affirmatively appear that the trial judge’s decision was influenced by said witness’s opinion. See Gilliland v. Snedden, 195 Okla. 601, 159 P. 2d 734; Wistar v. Whitewing, 189 Okla. 292, 116 P. 2d 565; Mid-Continent Petroleum Corp. v. Fisher, 183 Okla. 638, 84 P. 2d 22; Stow v. Bruce, 178 Okla. 127, 61 P. 2d 1043; Oskison v. Bagby, 172 Okla. 569, 46 P. 2d 331; also Jones v. Denton, 192 Okla. 234, 135 P. 2d 53; First Nat. Bank in Tonkawa v. Beatty, 172 Okla. 47, 45 P. 2d 158.

Defendant’s principal contention is that the trial court’s judgment is not sustained by sufficient evidence and is contrary to law in two particulars. This is said to be true, first, of its failure to grant defendant recovery from J. E. Logan of the $220.39 he withdrew from the plaintiff’s and defendant’s joint bank account on the check mailed him by plaintiff. As hereinbefore shown, a portion of the proceeds of this check was expended for court costs and defendant’s attorney fee. The evidence discloses that the remainder of said proceeds was remitted to plaintiff by *91 his father. Counsel calls our attention to evidence indicating that something like $20 of this sum was what remained in the account from earnings and government allotment checks defendant had deposited, but he fails to show wherein the judgment was contrary to law in failing to award this money to defendant. The evidence reveals that $200 deposited in said account by plaintiff before he went into the Marines represented the proceeds of the sale of his automobile. The defendant sought no alimony and testified she desired none. The judgment awarded her all of the property, both personal and real, that she and her husband were shown to have owned, except this money in the bank, and granted her $30 per month for child support during the months that the child was to be with her. The evidence showed that the property was worth several times the amount of money in the account. We know of no law or rule that would necessitate awarding her a larger portion of the parties’ joint property than she received.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1946 OK 145, 168 P.2d 878, 197 Okla. 88, 1946 Okla. LEXIS 478, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/logan-v-logan-okla-1946.