114 Kan. 37 | Kan. | 1923
The opinion of the court was delivered by
This is a. suit for divorce. There was a judgment for plaintiff and the defendant has appealed.
Appellant complains of the division of the property; that the amount set off to him was inadequate. When the parties were married' plaintiff had $5,000 insurance money, 150 shares of bank stock worth about $140 per share, and a rental business property in Emporia, the value of which is not shown. She also had a life estate only in a residence property in Emporia and in a rental business property in Emporia and in 353 acres of farm land near Emporia, the fee being in her daughter by a former marriage. There is some controversy as to what the defendant had at the time of the marriage. He testified that he had about $5,600 in cash, while plaintiff says he told her he had $3,000 and part of that was used on their wedding trip. Defendant managed the farms and put his money into the business. Soon after their marriage the plaintiff used her $5,000 insurance money and sold forty-four shares of her bank stock at $141 per share and bought 160 acres of farm land adjoining that on which she had a life estate. Some years later 320 acres, known as the Steele farm, was purchased for $12,200. This was paid for out of the income from the farms, except a $5,000 mortgage, which is still on the property. The parties lived together about .fourteen years and during that time improvements costing about $19,000 were made upon the farms, rental properties and residence. These improvements were paid for out of the earnings from the farms, owned as above stated and managed by defendant. In conducting the farm and cattle business an indebtedness amounting to $18,000 was incurred and plaintiff sold the remainder of her bank stock for $22,000 and paid this indebtedness, the difference, $4,000, being invested in th"e building and loan. At the time of the divorce there was cash, liberty bonds, live stock and farm products on hand of the value of about $8,500. The evidence showed there had been a great increase in the value of farm land, which increase had been brought about in part by cultivation and improvement, and
Section 7581 of the General Statutes of 1915 provides:
“When a divorce shall be granted by reason of the fault or aggression of the husband, the wife shall be restored ... to all the property, lands, tenements, hereditaments owned by her before her marriage of acquired by her in her own right after such marriage and not previously disposed of, and shall be allowed such alimony out of the husband’s real and personal property as the court shall think reasonable, having due regard to the property which came to him by marriage and the value of his real and personal estate at the time of said divorce; . . . And to such property, whether real or personal, as shall have been acquired by the parties jointly during their marriage, whether the title thereto be in either or both of said parties, the court shall make such division between the parties respectively ,as may appear just and reasonable, by a division of the property in kind, or by setting the same apart to one of the parties, and requiring the other thereof to pay such sum as may be just and proper to effect a fair and just division thereof.”
By the decree of the court the plaintiff was given a life estate in the same property in which she had a life estate at the time of her marriage, the 160 acres which she bought with her insurance money and her bank stock, the rental property in Emporia which she owned when married, and $4,000 invested in the building and loan, paid for with her bank stock (sold for $22,000). The $18,000 note which she paid, being for indebtedness incurred in operating the farms, would about pay the $19,000 improvements, paid for out of the earnings of the farm. This leaves the equity in the Steele
Finding no error in the record, the judgment is affirmed.