Powell v. Powell

58 N.E.2d 806, 74 Ohio App. 335, 42 Ohio Law. Abs. 314, 29 Ohio Op. 485, 1944 Ohio App. LEXIS 413
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedJune 1, 1944
Docket3727
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 58 N.E.2d 806 (Powell v. Powell) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Powell v. Powell, 58 N.E.2d 806, 74 Ohio App. 335, 42 Ohio Law. Abs. 314, 29 Ohio Op. 485, 1944 Ohio App. LEXIS 413 (Ohio Ct. App. 1944).

Opinion

OPINION

BY GEIGER, J.

This matter is before this Court on appeal from an order of the'Court of Common Pleas, Division of Domestic Relations. The matter involved is really confined to the question as to whether or not the Court erred in allowing temporary alimony; and the further question as to whether the Court allowed an excessive sum.

The petition is lengthy, but may be summarized as showing that the plaintiff and defendant were married in 1913; that the Huntington Bank and certain trustees are trustees of a spendthrift trust established by Frank E. Powell for the benefit of the defendant Wiliam K. Powell.

It is asserted in the petition that for more than eighteen years the defendant has abandoned plaintiff without cause, and cruelly neglected and disregarded his marital duties. It is asserted that the parties lived together happily from 1913 to 1920, when they were necessarily separated and the home broken by reason of the serious illness of the defendant, William; that during defendant’s illness the plaintiff contributed all that she could for his care and comfort. Since his recovery in 1925, the defendant has failed to re-established the home or to renew marital relationship, and since that time has wholly neglected to provide for the plaintiff or to furnish her support or the common, necessities of life, so that plaintiff from her own resources has been compelled to support herself and to rely upon the charity of her relatives and friends.

*316 It is alleged that the defendant is now and "since 1939 has been possessed of property of substantial value, the legal title to which and the control of which has been during said time fixed in the trustees in the spendthrift trust provided by his father’s will. It is asserted that it is the duty of the trustees to provide the defendant with sufficient income within the amounts available, to maintain plaintiff in accordance with her station in life, or to apply a sufficient amount of the income of the trust fund directly to the maintenance of the plaintiff as the wife of the beneficiary of the trust; it is asserted that the income from the trust is more than $25,000.00 per year, of which sum William K. Powell has been receiving, through the trustees, approximately $12,500.00 annually, of which plaintiff has not received anything either directly or indirectly, from-either Wiliam K. Powell or from the trustees. The said trustees have accumulated $70,000.00 undistributed income from said trust estate, and William has lived in comfort while the plaintiff has been reduced to penury. The prayer of the petition is that alimony for her sustenance and expenses during the pendency of the suit be granted her out of the property and income of William K. Powell, and that the trustees be ordered to provide such temporary alimony, and that on final hearing she may be decreed a reasonable allowance for alimony out of the property and income of William in an amount comparable to the amount received by him, and that the trustees be ordered to pay such permanent alimony directly to the plaintiff, and that the plaintiff may have further relief for costs, including 'attorney’s fees.

There is filed with the petition a copy of the last will and testament of Frank E. Powell which is long and involved and which has five rather complicated codicils, largely dealing with the spendthrift trust established by the father for William. There is no provision in the will or in the codicils that the trustees shall be required to pay any sum to William for the support of his wife, neither does the will prohibit the .application of any of the funds so produced, to the care of the wife.

The petition was filed on February 5, 1944, and on February 16, 1944, a motion of plaintiff for temporary alimony and for maintenance and support and expenses during the pendency of the suit out of the property and income of William and for an allowance of a sum comparable to the amount paid by said trustees to her husband. She also asks for $1000.00 for expenses and that the bank and the *317 trustees be ordered to pay to the plaintiff said sums or such amount as the Court may deem, just and proper.

It is also stated that the consideration of the payment of counsel fees may be deferred.

The trustee of the bank filed a memorandum quoting the provisions of the will and taking the position that at that time there should be no order made to compel the trustees to pay temporary alimony.

On March 1st the wife filed an affidavit in support of her motion for temporary alimony pendente lite, which is a restatement and an elaboration of the allegations made in the petition. In such affidavit it is stated that the cash income received from the trustees of the trust created under the will of Frank E. Powell for William K. Powell, from August 9, 1939, to February, 1944, was $117,222.65, of which there has been paid to William K. Powell up until February 9, 1944, the total of $44,187.99, leaving an undistributed reserve for the benefit of William of $73,844.66, as of February 9, 1944, and it is stated in said affidavit that from that source alone of trust funds William has been receiving cash payments from the trustee in excess of $12,000.00 per year, leaving still greater amounts in the trust available. It is asserted that in addition to the cash payments William K. Powell was provided with a home. It is asserted that plaintiff has been compelled to rely upon gratuities from her friends and relatives and has in addition incurred unpaid debts for her necessary maintenance in excess of $5000.00 and that she is without home or income and in said motion she asks the Court for an order directing the payment to her from either William K. Powell or the defendant trustees or both, a sum comparable to that having been paid by the trustees to her husband.

Much of the controversy and argument of counsel revolves around the point raised by the trustees that the Court has no right to order them to páy from the trust fund any sum for the support of the wife, it being maintained that under the provisions of the will relating to said trust fund the amount to be paid to William is entirely within the discretion of the trustees and that there is no obligation on the part of the trustees to pay any portion to the wife or to contribute to the same.

William K. Powell files an affidavit largely devoted to disputing and denying the allegations of his wife’s petition in relation to the care that she gave to him during his sickness. Counsel for the defendant made a request for a separate finding of facts and conclusions o*f law. The trustees filed demurrers, which seem not to have been passed upon by the Court.

*318 The matter was presented to the Court and the bill of exceptions which is filed is largely made from the colloquy between counsel and the Court and does not appear to present any factual question except the filing of the petition, together with the affidavit of the plaintiff and the affidavit of the defendant.

Counsel for the defendant, William K. Powell, in his argument and briefs and colloquy with the Court stressed the facts that there was no evidence submitted justifying the Court in fixing the amount of alimony to be paid to the plaintiff pendente lite; that there was no showing that the defendant was possessed of any sufficient funds out of which alimony might be paid.

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Bluebook (online)
58 N.E.2d 806, 74 Ohio App. 335, 42 Ohio Law. Abs. 314, 29 Ohio Op. 485, 1944 Ohio App. LEXIS 413, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/powell-v-powell-ohioctapp-1944.