Miller v. Pearce

85 A. 620, 86 Vt. 322, 1913 Vt. LEXIS 202
CourtSupreme Court of Vermont
DecidedJanuary 9, 1913
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 85 A. 620 (Miller v. Pearce) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Vermont primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Miller v. Pearce, 85 A. 620, 86 Vt. 322, 1913 Vt. LEXIS 202 (Vt. 1913).

Opinion

Rowell, C. J.

This is case for alienating the affections of .plaintiff’s husband. It was proper to allow Cahee to testify to the value of the defendant’s house, for exemplary damages were claimed. Rea v. Harrington, 58 Vt. 181, 188, 2 Atl. 475, 56 Am. Rep. 561.

It was also proper to allow the witness Bresee to say that the occurrence to which he testified about the defendant’s motioning plaintiff’s husband into Baker’s drug store and there drink[324]*324ing soda with, him was the subject of remark between him and Baker, for it specified a ground for his recollection and tended to strengthen it. I Wig. Ev. §730. This rule is illustrated and its limitations stated in Detroit etc. R. R. Co. v. Van Steinburg, 17 Mich. 99. The same may be said of Howland’s testimony that the presence of the defendant on a street in Brandon at a certain time was the subject of remark in a certain office there.

The plaintiff’s husband was a witness for the defendant, and testified that his relations and associations.with her were merely the friendly relations and associations of a gentleman and a lady, and entirely proper in all respects, and always with due regard to propriety. He also testified that he took a lease of defendant’s barn at one time, and kept his horses there. On cross-examination he said that this suit was pending when he took the lease .and moved in his horses, which, it appeared, he took care of himself mornings and nights. The cross-examiner was then allowed to elicit from him that he-knew when he took the lease that there had been and was public discussion and sentiment about his associations with the defendant, and that he testified about a year after he brought a petition for divorce against his wife, — which was while this suit was pending, — that said publicity had decreased his business more than threefold. Large scope is allowed to cross-examination, the extent of it in a given case being left largely to the discretion of the trial court. 2 Wig. Ev. §944; Stevens v. Beach, 12 Vt. 587, 36 Am. Dec. 359; Hathaway v. Crocker, 7 Met. 266. Here the cross-examination was well within the discretion of the trial court if not within the right of the defendant, and so no error.

The defendant called the officer who served the petition for divorce on the plaintiff, and showed by him a conversation he had with her at the time in the house and the presence of Miss Griswold. The plaintiff called Miss Griswold in rebuttal to testify to that conversation. The defendant objected that the officer could not be impeached without first inquiring of him about it. The officer not being present at the time, the court said that the witness might be examined and the officer nailed later if necessary, and thereupon the witness was examined. Later, the officer was called by the plaintiff and examined by both sides as to what was said. The course taken by the court was entirely discretionary, and so no error here.

[325]*325Nor was it error to exclude talk to the plaintiff by Miss Griswold in which the officer did not participate and to which the plaintiff made no reply, especially as it does not appear what Miss Griswold said, nor that any unfavorable inference could be drawn-against the plaintiff because of her silence.

The defendant seasonably moved for a verdict, because there was no evidence tending to support the declaration; none tending to show that defendant interfered, or in any way undertook or tried, to alienate the affections of plaintiff’s husband; and because the entire evidence showed that the plaintiff was entirely estranged from her husband before the commencement of his acquaintance with the defendant. This motion was rightly overruled. We take no time with the last ground of it, for if true, it would not defeat recovery but go only in mitigation of damages. Fratini v. Caslini, 66 Vt. 273, 29 Atl. 252, 44 Am. St. Rep. 843; Lewis v. Roby, 79 Vt. 487, 65 Atl. 524, 118 Am. St. Rep. 984.

The other ground of the motion is not well founded, for the testimony on the part of the plaintiff clearly tends to show what the motion says it does not, namely, that the defendant' did interfere, and did undertake and try, to alienate the affections of plaintiff’s husband.

The defendant requested a charge that in order to recover it -must affirmatively appear that she was the seducer and enticer, and that the plaintiff could not recover if it appeared that her husband enticed her into unlawful ■ relations with him. The defendant excepted for noncompliance with this request, .and now says that the court applied it only to “enticing, inducing, and persuading,” whereas she had a right to have it cover seducing also, claiming that unless she was the acting and seducing party there could be no recovery. But “enticing, inducing, and persuading” by the defendant were certainly sufficient as to all the elements of recovery except the “unlawful relations” mentioned in the request, which we take to mean criminal conversation, and whether as to those relations, seduction by the defendant was necessary to recovery will be considered later.

The defendant also excepted to the failure to charge as requested that intentional alienation must be shown. But the charge shows a substantial compliance with this request. She also excepted to the failure to charge as requested that her acts that caused the alleged injury must have been malicious. This [326]*326was not charged, which is claimed error because both compensatory and exemplary damages were claimed. But that malíes no difference, for exemplary damages do not go to the right of recovery, as the request assumes, but only to the amount of recovery in the discretion of the jury.

The declaration alleges adultery as one means of alienation. The court charged without qualification that if adultery was found, the plaintiff should recover, as the law would presume alienation. To this the defendant excepted generally, and claims that notwithstanding the allegation of adultery, the action is purely for alienation and not at all for crim. con., but that the court “mixed” the law of these two actions, whereas it should have applied only the law relative to actions for alienation, and therefore should have told the jury that the plaintiff could not recover on the ground of adultery unless the defendant was the seducer, which the court did not do, but left it in :a way that the plaintiff might recover on that ground though her husband was the seducer and the defendant the seduced, which might have been proper, it is said, had the action been for criminal conversation, — if such an action can be maintained against a woman, which is denied arguendo, — for there the seduction, the act itself, is the gist, while here the loss of consortium is the gist, and therefore the defendant must be the seducer, otherwise no protection is afforded to a woman who is likely to have been overcome by persistency or.force and without intent on her part.

It is to be noticed that the defendant is not claiming that this action cannot be maintained against her at all on the ground of criminal conversation, but only that it cannot be without showing that she was the seducer as to that, any more than it can be on the other ground alleged without showing that she was the entieer, inducer, and persuader as to that. So the question is,

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Bluebook (online)
85 A. 620, 86 Vt. 322, 1913 Vt. LEXIS 202, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/miller-v-pearce-vt-1913.