Zunder v. Zunder

187 Misc. 557, 62 N.Y.S.2d 776, 1946 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 2311
CourtNew York Family Court
DecidedJune 4, 1946
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 187 Misc. 557 (Zunder v. Zunder) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Family Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Zunder v. Zunder, 187 Misc. 557, 62 N.Y.S.2d 776, 1946 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 2311 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1946).

Opinion

Sicher, J.

A situation analogous to the present controversy was considered in “ Kenneson ” v. “ Kenneson ” (178 Misc. 832). That too was a ease in which a wife had filed petition for a support order of this court immediately upon failure of her Supreme Court action for a legal separation, and had made no recanting offer of reconciliation after dismissal of such separation action complaint nor at the hearings in this court tendered evidence of other intervening change of circumstances, The principles discussed and the authorities analyzed in “ Kenneson. ” v. “ Kenneson (supra) are therefore controllingly applicable to the petitioner wife herein.

[559]*559However, the instant proceeding involves the additional problem of the needs and rights of a child dependent; “ Kenneson. ” v. “ Kenneson (supra) dealt with a wife only.

The parties were duly married on August 25, 1939, and are the parents of one child (“ Harold ”), born October 31, 1940. The three resided as a family unit in a Bronx County apartment until October 25, 1943, when petitioner abruptly moved out, took with her the child and all the household furniture, and shortly afterwards instituted in the Supreme Court of the State of New York an action for separation, predicated solely on alleged failure of support between October 11 and October 25, 1943.

Respondent served in the United States Army from March 23,1944, until December 22,1945. So, the separation action was not tried until March 18, 1946, when Justice McGeehan dismissed the complaint at the close of the whole case and commented, in response to plaintiff’s counsel’s query whether the court found that the husband did support the wife: The

Court: I am impelled to arrive at this conclusion. ..This is probably the most unique separation case that ever came before me in all the years I have been on the bench in that a husband, because for two weeks he failed to support his wife — which-I don’t find because from the sale, of the machine she got $60.— her debts are her husband’s debts — she didn’t have to go arid dispose of that $60; she could have kept it and maintained herself on the $60 — and in addition to that she takes, every stick of furniture he possesses and removes the furniture arid deprives him of a home — now I don’t want to get any more in it or widen the breach between these people. ’ ’

There was also an express finding that the wife' had abandoned the husband. However, the latter’s counterclaim for affirmative relief was not pressed, and. the judgment entered April 2, 1946, merely dismisses the wife’s complaint on :the merits. Consequently, this support proceeding is not governed by Matter of Chandler v. Chandler (241 App. Div. 390) nor such Family Court decisions as Gilgun v. Gilgun (N. Y. L. J., May 2, 1935, p. 2249, col. 3), Cosgrove v. Cosgrove (23 N. Y. S. 2d 586), and Anonymous v. Anonymous (20 N. Y. S. 2d 514)., because in each of those four cases the respondent was a husband who had previously been granted an affirmative judgment of separation in his favor. (Cf. Litt v. Litt, 234 App. Div. 870, motion for leave to appeal to the Court of Appeals denied, 235 App. Div. 631; O’Leary v. O’Leary, 256 App. Div. 130; Harlow v. Harlow, 123 Misc. 53.)

[560]*560Nevertheless, for purposes of today’s order it is immaterial that the above-described April 2, 1946, Supreme Court judgment, since it merely dismissed her complaint, privileged petitioner to recant, so that if a timely and bona fide offer to resume marital'relations were made by her and unjustifiably rejected or ignored, a new cause of action for separation or support according to the husband’s means might arise in her favor. (See Silberstein v. Silberstein, 218 N. Y. 525; Mirizio v. Mirizio, 248 N. Y. 175; Bohmert v. Bohmert, 241 N. Y. 446; O’Leary v. O’Leary, 256 App. Div. 130, supra; Harlow v. Harlow, 123 Misc. 53, supra; and Brauch v. Brauch, 142 Misc. 464.) For, at the. preliminary April 4, 1946, hearing and also at the April 15, 1946, final hearing in this court both parties expressed unwillingness to re-establish a home or again live together. Thus, like “ Kenneson ” v. “ Kenneson ” (178 Misc. 832, supra), this is a case of a wife who petitions the Family Court to grant in effect separate maintenance support recently denied to her by the Supreme Court but who adduces not. a single new fact occurring since the Supreme Court determination against her. Under such circumstances, to grant petitioner’s prayer for her own support according to respondent’s means would violate res judicata and orderly procedure. The conclusion is therefore inescapable that this court is without power to make at this time any order for support of the petitioner wife except on a “ public charge ” basis; that is, respondent’s present duty in respect of the petitioner, wife personally is solely the residual minimum obligation of indemnifying the community against the burden of her support. (Cf. “ Kenneson ” v. “ Kenneson ”, 178 Misc. 832, 836-841, supra; “ Salvatore ” v. “ Salvatore ”, 185 Misc. 309; and N. Y.; City Dom. Rel. Ct. Act, § 137, subd. 4.)

And the evidence would not justify a finding that the petitioner wife now is, or likely to become, to any extent a ‘ ‘ public charge ”.

Shortly after unjustifiably leaving respondent, with the furniture she took along petitioner- set up, and still maintains, a joint household for her mother, herself and the child Harold ”. It is unclear, but inconsequential, whether the petitioner or her mother is the tenant; in either event the latter, who is employed outside the home, shares the. cost of maintaining the apartment and has the use of that, furniture and of her daughter’s housekeeping services. Petitioner has contributed also some cash out of the separation action .pendente lite alimony collections and the substituted servicemen’s dependents’ allowance during [561]*561respondent’s army service. She may have carried an additional proportion of the entire household expenses out of personal earnings before August, 1945, when she ceased gainful employment, having since devoted all her time to the care of the child and the household. Accordingly, as today’s order for the child member of that joint household is slightly more than the equivalent of those alimony and servicemen’s dependents’ allowance payments, the total financial situation continues substantially the same as it has been since August, 1945.

True, the statutory obligation of a parent to support an adult daughter is secondary to the primary obligation of the latter’s husband; and, although invocable by the Department of Welfare of the City of New York, it may not be urged by him in self-exoneration (see “ Lorenzo ” v. “ Lorenzo ”, 1.83 Misc. 46, 49). But that principle is inapplicable to the instant case, which is not one of a parent’s supplying shelter and other requirements to a deserted, and otherwise destitute, married daughter, but is rather the case of a parent’s deriving personal advantage from joint household arrangements with a daughter who has abandoned her husband.

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Bluebook (online)
187 Misc. 557, 62 N.Y.S.2d 776, 1946 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 2311, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/zunder-v-zunder-nyfamct-1946.