Overton v. Overton

1926 OK 440, 246 P. 1095, 121 Okla. 1, 1926 Okla. LEXIS 30
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedMay 4, 1926
Docket16584
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 1926 OK 440 (Overton v. Overton) 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
Overton v. Overton, 1926 OK 440, 246 P. 1095, 121 Okla. 1, 1926 Okla. LEXIS 30 (Okla. 1926).

Opinion

RILEY, J.

This cause presents an appeal from the judgment of the district court of Tulsa county wherein the defendant in error, Ann Overton, sustained a judgment in the sum of $150,000 ($30,000 of which amount was exemplary) against the plaintiff in error," Ellen Overton, for the alienation of the affections of C. H. Overton, husband of the former. References to the parties are hereafter made as they appeared below.

The plaintiff and C. H. Overton were married in 1906, and of this union two children were born, Tom and Margaret, who were of the ages of 17 and 12, respectively, at the time of the' institution of this action. Plaintiff and her husband were long residents of Tulsa, happily situated, and they accumulated considerable property by their joint industry, which property in a divorce decree hereinafter mentioned was found to be in the approximate value of a quarter million dollars.

The plaintiff became aware of defendant’s association with O. H. Overton on November 4, 1921, in a conversation over the telephone between the defendant and Overton, and on the next day the plaintiff requested the defendant to give up her attentions to Overton, which request the defendant refused. The defendant thereafter called Overton by tele *2 phone and came in person to the Overton home and there threatened to kill the plaintiff. Thereafter occurred various escapades and rendezvous between Overton and defendant centered about various apartments in Tulsa and extended to Oklahoma City.

On November 16, 1922, plaintiff filed her petition against Overton for divorce.

It appears from the testimony of plaintiff that Overton remained at his home with his family “practically all the time” until after the petition for divorce was filed on November 16, 1922. (R. p. 63.)

There was corroborated testimony that Overton returned to his home on Christmas, 1922, with gifts for all of his family; that he discussed with plaintiff the dismissal of her petition for divorce and promised to give up his association with defendant. The plaintiff and Overton were divorced by decree on April 27, 1923. Overton and defendant were married the following November; and Over-ton departed this life May 19, 1924. The ease at bar was begun on November 15, 1924.

It appears from the eyidence that defendant Ellen Overton’s maiden name was Blaek-ston; she claimed a common-law marriage with one Wright, deceased, yet, to the contrary, she testified that she had never been married before her relation with Overton. The evidence shows that without marriage she assumed various convenient names, and that prior to her marriage with Overton and during her residence in Tulsa her livelihood was secured without sweat of her brow.

It is contended by the defendant that plaintiff’s cause of action was barred by the statute of limitation.

The gist of an action for alienation of affections is the loss of society, affection, assistance, conjugal fellowship and consortium. Brown v. Brown, 104 Okla. 206, 230 Pac. 853; Farneman v. Farneman, 46 Ind. App. 453, 90 N. E. 775, 91 N. E. 968; Murray v. Postal T. & C. Co., 210 Mass. 188, 96 N. E. 316, Ann. Cas. 1912C, 1183. The statute of limitations begins to run in such eases from the date of the loss of consortium (Wolle v. Luckenbach, 26 Pa. Dist. 907), which, as stated in 30 C. J. 1128, may be when plaintiff separates from the alienated spouse.

In Bockman v. Ritter (Ind. App.) 52 N. E. 100, where it was contended that the damage was accomplished more than two years before the commencement of the action, the ■contentiion based upon the 'complainant’s statement “that about four years ago the defendant began to poison the mind of the appellee’s wife,” it is said:

“But it appears from the complaint that the injurious consequence of the appellant’s wrongful conduct for .which the appellee sought damages was not fully accomplished until the wife left her home and the appellee and declared she would not live with him longer. This was on September 12, 1S96, which was less than two weeks before commencement of the action. That it required four years of wrong to accomplish this result cannot operate to the benefit of the wrongdoer.”

Likewise, in the case of Wolle v. Lucken-back, supra, where in the state of Pennsylvania a statute of limitation of six years applied and where in the action brought by a husband to recover for the alienation of his wife’s affection, and where it appeared that the plaintiff separated from his wife on July 25, 1909, and suit was brought on July 23, 1915, it was held that the statute of limitation was not a bar to the action and that the plaintiff was not limited in his proof to the two days’ interval between July 23, and July 25, 1909, provided the proof was otherwise relevant.

The statute of limitation began to run from the time when the cause of action herein) accrued, no exceptions being pleaded. Generally a cause of action accrues at the moment- the party owning it has a legal right to sue, except wherein extrinsic facts are interposed which would postpone the operation of the statute.

The gist of the cause of action herein has been said to be the loss of consortium of the husband. More or less of a complete loss of this is shown to have occurred at the time the husband left his home and severed his marital relations with the .plaintiff. It is shown by 'the undisputed testimony of plaintiff that this loss occurred after the filing of the petition for divorce on November 16, 1922, and since the action herein was filed within one day of two years thereafter, without considering the effect of the return of the husband on Christmas of 1922, and his fleeting promise of breaking off with the defendant, and without considering a new enticement by the defendant, if any, we held that the statute of limitation is not a bar to the action herein presented. Mohn v. Tingley et al. (Cal.) 217 Pac. 733.

This we hold, notwithstanding the contention of defendant’s counsel that there is not one scintilla of testimony as to any action of defendant later than some days prior to the filing of the petition for divorce, for the damage for which relief is sought was not *3 fully accomplished until the husbanb permanently left plaintiff’s home. It is the latent wrong theretofore committed; which , evidenced itself at the date of the complete loss for which plaintiff seeks her remedy and not for continuing wrongful acts thereafter. When the wrong was evidenced 'by the loss, the cause of action was complete,, the statute of limitation began to run, and additional wrongful acts, if any, are of no consequence so far as this action is concerned.

Nor do we intend laying down a rule that the aggrieved spouse, in order to maintain such a suit, must be wholly abandoned in the literal sense and separated from the erring one with or without a decree of divorce as a price of redress for injuries sustained. But where a literal abandonment or actual loss occurs, then it would seem that the loss of the spouse’s physical presence in the home is the climax as to time from whence the statute of limitations runs. See Rott v. Goehring (N. D.) 157 N. W. 294; Mussellem v. Frenn, 101 Okla. 45, 225 Pac. 370.

The Supreme Court of Alabama in Woodson v. Bailey, 98 South. 809, holds:

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Bluebook (online)
1926 OK 440, 246 P. 1095, 121 Okla. 1, 1926 Okla. LEXIS 30, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/overton-v-overton-okla-1926.