Ransom v. Ransom

309 S.W.3d 204, 2009 Ark. App. 273, 2009 Ark. App. LEXIS 427
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arkansas
DecidedApril 15, 2009
DocketCA 08-1235
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 309 S.W.3d 204 (Ransom v. Ransom) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ransom v. Ransom, 309 S.W.3d 204, 2009 Ark. App. 273, 2009 Ark. App. LEXIS 427 (Ark. Ct. App. 2009).

Opinion

JOHN MAUZY PITTMAN, Judge.

| Appellant George Ransom seeks reversal of a divorce decree. He argues that his former wife, appellee Lyndel Ransom, failed to prove grounds for divorce and that the circuit court erred in dividing the couple’s property. Appellee also challenges the court’s division of property but states that she will not pursue her cross-appeal unless we reverse on direct appeal. We affirm on direct appeal, which renders the cross-appeal moot.

Standard of Review

We review domestic-relations cases de novo on the record, but we will not reverse the circuit court’s findings unless they are clearly erroneous. Hunter v. Haunert, 101 Ark.App. 93, 270 S.W.3d 339 (2007). A circuit court’s finding is clearly erroneous when, although there is evidence to support it, the reviewing court on the entire record is left with |2a definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed. Id. We give due deference to the superior position of the circuit court to view and judge the credibility of the witnesses. Id.

Proof of Grounds

Appellee sued appellant for divorce on the ground of general indignities. See Ark.Code Ann. § 9-12-301(b)(3)(C) (Repl.2008). To obtain a divorce on this ground, the plaintiff must show a habitual, continuous, permanent, and plain manifestation of settled hate, alienation, and estrangement on the part of one spouse, sufficient to render the condition of the other intolerable. Poore v. Poore, 76 Ark. App. 99, 61 S.W.3d 912 (2001). Such manifestations may consist of rudeness, unmerited reproach, contempt, studied neglect, and open insult. See Pomraning v. Pomraning, 13 Ark.App. 258, 682 S.W.2d 775 (1985). Mere uncongeniality and quarrelsomeness, without more, are not sufficient to sustain a charge of indignities. Poore, supra. Additionally, testimony by the plaintiff and corroborating witnesses that is merely general or conclusory in nature is not sufficient. See Dee v. Dee, 99 Ark.App. 159, 258 S.W.3d 405 (2007); Harpole v. Harpole, 10 Ark.App. 298, 664 S.W.2d 480 (1984); Copeland v. Copeland, 2 Ark.App. 55, 616 S.W.2d 773 (1981). The circuit court’s finding of general indignities must be based on factual testimony and proof of specific acts and language showing the rudeness, contempt, and indignities complained of. Poore, supra (quoting Bell v. Bell, 105 Ark. 194, 150 S.W. 1031 (1912)).

IsAppellant contends that appellee’s evidence of grounds consisted of little more than a few minor incidents that occurred while he was under stress due to health and family problems. Appellant has understated appellee’s proof. Appellee testified that she and appellant played golf every Friday and that his anger over her golf game reduced her to tears each week. Appellant’s conduct toward appellee on the golf course was confirmed by witnesses Betz Windsor and Faye Taylor. Taylor testified that she once observed appellant come onto the golf course while appellee was playing in a ladies’ league and scream at appellee so loudly that Taylor could hear him from across the fairway. According to Taylor, appellant continued to chastise appellee after she took her next shot, which left appellee “sobbing and shaking.”

Appellee also testified to appellant’s conduct outside the golf course. She recounted one incident in which she and appellant drove separate cars home to Hot Springs from Little Rock. Appellee could not keep up with appellant’s rapid driving in heavy traffic, and he motioned for her to pull over to the side of the road. Appellee did so and, according to her, appellant ran toward her vehicle, “tore the door open” and “started screaming and cussing at me about what was wrong with the blankety-blank car, I told you to stay up with me and his language and his demeanor toward me was horrible.” Appellee said that when they arrived home, appellant left without saying where he was going. Appellee further testified that, during this same period, she heard appellant talking on his cell phone downstairs in the middle of the night and that he would not disclose to whom he was ^speaking. She also found, under a mat in the back of her vehicle, a birthday card containing a romantic message to appellant from a woman of their acquaintance. Appellee additionally said that she was afraid of appellant because he had started carrying a gun and that “he left our home day after day for hours on end not letting me know where he was going.” Further, appellee said that appellant gambled regularly and that he often made large cash withdrawals. She stated that she could not account for at least $77,000 of their joint funds.

Appellee’s witnesses described appellant as domineering, loud, and demanding. Teresa Cummings stated that appellee had once been “a leader in our community” but that she had become nervous and withdrawn, though Cummings acknowledged that appellee’s health problems might have caused her to be a little more soft-spoken than in the past. Patsy Crocker testified that appellant treated appellee “like a maid” and that appellee had lost her self-esteem.

Given the above testimony, we cannot say that the circuit court clearly erred in granting appellee a divorce on the ground of general indignities. Appellee and her witnesses offered fully developed, narrative accounts of appellant’s conduct, citing specific acts and language. They also testified in detail to the effect of appellant’s conduct on appellee. As a result, appel-lee’s proof far exceeded that in Dee, supra, and Harpole, supra, where we reversed divorce decrees that were based solely on the plaintiffs’ short responses to their attorneys’ inquiries about indignities. Ap-pellee’s proof also surpasses that in Poore, supra. There, we affirmed a circuit court’s dismissal of a divorce complaint after the plaintiff proved | .^nothing more than a continuing disagreement over the husband’s job decision. By contrast, appellee showed that appellant frequently directed his wrath toward her in a manner that embarrassed, humiliated, and frightened her; that appellant publicly and privately harangued appellee over minor matters; that appellant acted in a dismissive and suspicious manner by leaving the house for hours without explanation, making a late-night phone call without saying to whom he was speaking, and being in possession of a romantic card from another woman; that appellant gambled frequently; and that appellee could not account for a large portion of the couple’s joint funds. Even if no single one of these incidents, standing alone, would constitute grounds for divorce, the incidents together produce a cumulative effect sufficient to support the ground of general indignities. See generally Moore v. Davidson, 85 Ark.App. 104, 145 S.W.3d 833 (2004). We therefore affirm the circuit court’s decision to grant a divorce.

Property Division

Prior to the marriage, appellee owned homes on Pineapple Drive and Arlington Road. She and appellant lived at the Arlington Road home during the marriage.

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Bluebook (online)
309 S.W.3d 204, 2009 Ark. App. 273, 2009 Ark. App. LEXIS 427, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ransom-v-ransom-arkctapp-2009.