Munsell v. Munsell

24 N.W.2d 566, 147 Neb. 590, 1946 Neb. LEXIS 103
CourtNebraska Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 11, 1946
DocketNo. 32076
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 24 N.W.2d 566 (Munsell v. Munsell) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nebraska Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Munsell v. Munsell, 24 N.W.2d 566, 147 Neb. 590, 1946 Neb. LEXIS 103 (Neb. 1946).

Opinion

Paine, J.

Plaintiff was granted an absolute divorce on her petition alleging extreme cruelty, and was awarded as alimony the equity in a house at 3346 North Fifty-fifth Street, Omaha, 'together with all furniture and household goods, of the value of $1,200, and permanent alimony of $750, payable at the rate of $50' a month, beginning December 1, 1945, together with her attorney fees, in the sum of $150, and costs. The court awarded the defendant the house located at 3732 North Fifty-third Street, Omaha, in which there is an equity of $1,300, and the Buick automobile, of the value of $800.

From this decree the plaintiff appeals, setting forth 21 assignments of error, which may be briefly summarized as follows: That the evidence does not sustain the findings [591]*591that plaintiff had on deposit only $95.42 in The Omaha National Bank, and thereafter deposited only $1,329.02 in said bank; error in finding that all the deposits in the Douglas County Bank were the earnings of defendant, except $800, proceeds from sale of automobile, and in finding that defendant contributed $12,500, from which the real estate was acquired. Plaintiff denies that there iá any equity in the house given her in the decree, or that the furniture is worth $1,200. Plaintiff alleges that the award of only $750 permanent alimony is insufficient under the evidence, and she is entitled to- a much larger sum; that the court erred in awarding the house described herein to defendant, and requiring her to surrender possession to him within 15 days, as such an order is unjust and inequitable.

It will be seen that practically all the main assignments of error relate to the distribution of their assets between them and to the amount 6f alimony allowed plaintiff. It may be said that the evidence pro and con relating to various acts of cruelty, their very unhappy home life, and the serious charges each makes' against the other, engendered considerable feeling between the litigants and also their counsel, but such evidence will not be reviewed in this opinion, although a reading of it satisfies this court that plaintiff was entitled to the absolute decree of divorce granted by the trial court.

It appears that the defendant met the plaintiff for the first time some three weeks before their marriage, which took place on March 9, 1938, which was seven weeks after the plaintiff’s second husband was killed, and they lived together for a little oyer seven years, and separated in June. 1945. No issue' was the result of this marriage, but the plaintiff had two daughters, the older one being named Ruth, the same as the mother, who married a service man on September 6, 1943, who went to the South Pacific, and she lived with the plaintiff and defendant at times, receiving allotments from this marriage, and her mother stated' that she paid board from such allotments. This daughter [592]*592testified that once she called the police when her stepfather was striking her mother. She testified as- to differences between them over their cars and the use of their cars.

The younger daughter of the plaintiff was Kathryn, who had been living at Fort Dodge, Iowa, with her older sister, but they both 'came back to live with the mother a week after she was married to defendant. Kathryn testified that she was 17 years of age, that she was married but that marriage was annulled, probably by her husband’s folks, on June 9, 1945, and then she married a young man named Kaiser on June 20, 1945, and she testified that she moved back home with Kaiser and they lived in the basement, but that she is now separated from Kaiser.

This court has established certain rules which may be used as a guide in fixing a reasonable amount of alimony to be given in case a divorce is granted. These rules may be found set out in detail in Swolec v. Swolec, 122 Neb. 837, 241 N. W. 771, Phillips v. Phillips, 135 Neb. 313, 281 N. W. 22, Hild v. Hild, 135 Neb. 896, 284 N. W. 730, O’Donnell v. O’Donnell, 142 Neb. 706, 7 N. W. 2d 647, Lippincott v. Lippincott, 144 Neb. 486, 13 N. W. 2d 721, Vocelka v. Vocelka, 146 Neb. 268, 19 N. W. 2d 363, and Haussener v. Haussener, ante p. 489, 23 N. W. 2d 700. From these and other decisions of our court, many facts should be taken into consideration in fixing the amount of alimony.

The case at bar comes within the third class of- cases discussed in Phillips v. Phillips, supra,, where the parties are mature when they are married, one or both have been married before, and have no issue from the union, and separated after a few years of unhappy married life.

In fixing the amount of permanent alimony, the court will take into consideration the age of each party at the time of the marriage, the estate which each party had at that time, together with their respective contributions, as well as the earning ability of each during their marriage and also at the time of the decree, their condition of health, [593]*593their station in life, the duration of the marriage and the conduct of each during said period, the value of their financial holdings at the time the decree is granted, as well as the wife’s loss of interest in the husband’s property, together with all other facts and circumstances which have been brought out in the trial, and award such alimony as appears to be fair and equitable between the parties.

As was stated in Swolec v. Swolec, supra, “there has never been an attempt by this court to fix any rules which would relieve the trial judge'of a patient, detailed study of every fact and circumstance relating to each case as it comes on for trial.”

In an effort to arrive at the assets and earnings of the respective parties in the case at bar, we have examined the bill of exceptions, of nearly 300 pages, and the exhibits of bank statements and about 100 checks offered in evidence, in an attempt to arrive at some kind of a trial balance of their financial affairs.

We find that the bank account of the Douglas County Bank, being exhibit No. 3, runs only from August 16, 1944, to May 14, 1945, during which nine months there was deposited some $1,776, which was checked out and the account was closed. Next, there appear five pages of the bank account in The Omaha National Bank of the plaintiff under her former name of Ruth C. Schnack, and these bank statements cover five months, from January to May of 1938, part of which time was prior to her marriage; but this occount shows that her balance in this account on the date of their marriage, March 9, 1938, was $95.42.

Any attempt to set out receipts and expenses of the plaintiff is further complicated by the testimony of the plaintiff, her daughters, and her mother that she kept sums of money, ranging from $400 to $800, hidden around the home, under the rugs and in various other places, and the plaintiff testifies that she gave $800 of this hidden money at one time to the defendant, which he absolutely denies.

[594]*594There is introduced as exhibit No. 2, on a sheet of post-office letter paper, items of two accounts of savings in the United States Post Office, in which are shown total deposits of $1,504. The largest of these deposits is $580, which is marked in lead pencil as Ruth’s allotment, probably received from the government, and $290 as part of down payment on Ruth’s house.

The other lead pencil memorandum on this exhibit No.

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Bluebook (online)
24 N.W.2d 566, 147 Neb. 590, 1946 Neb. LEXIS 103, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/munsell-v-munsell-neb-1946.