161 Mo. App. 40 | Mo. Ct. App. | 1912
Divorce. The record does not show when this suit was begun, but it does show that on September 26, 1910, the plaintiff filed an amended petition. The amended petition alleges a great many indignities he received at the hands of the defendant, and that plaintiff has resided one whole year in the county of Jackson, state of Missouri. In this latter respect the allegation of residence is similar to that in the original petition. The court, after having hea^d the evidence, found for plaintiff .and entered a decree divorcing the parties fromv which the defendant appealed.
The defendant contends, first, that the allegations of the amended petition were not sufficient to give the court jurisdiction, of the cause. - The statute requires the plaintiff, in divorce proceedings, to allege and prove that he or she has resided one whole year in the state next before the filing of the petition, therefore, it is insisted that the allegation in the amended petition of residence in the state one year next before its
The parties were married in 1890, and they separated on March 4, 1910. Ever since their marriage they have lived in Kansas City, Missouri. Of the marriage two children were born. Estella, the elder, was seventeen years of age at the trial, and Clarence was nine years of age at that time.
The evidence makes it sufficiently clear that plaintiff did make sufficient provision for his family and that he did not squander any part of his money, but invested it in property of for other useful' purposes. Taking into consideration the fact that plaintiff was not squandering his earnings, but was using a sufficient part for the proper support of his family and economizing with the remainder, the conduct of defendant in seeking the interference of the marshal to invade plaintiff’s domestic circle and to coerce him to accede to her demands in the way in which he should conduct his business under such circumstances, we think, was such an indignity which any man of stamina and moral worth would resent, and that it would at
Because defendant was shown to have been a woman and mother of good character, devoted to her household, etc.; that she is a “home-keeper and home-builder” of the highest type, that type of woman as is set forth in the 31st chapter of Solomon’s Proverbs, the defendant contends plaintiff was not entitled to the decree. We shall not take up space and quote the proverb, although we believe it is all right, or ought to be, as Solomon, by reason of his experience with many hundred wives should have known, but we will content ourselves with merely calling attention to one sentence that it contains, viz.: “She shall do him good and not evil all the days of her life.” If the evidence on admissions of the defendant be true, defendant was sadly deficient in one of the qualities mentioned that constituted a good wife. That she was a good woman in all other respects we deem it our duty to emphasize, but for some reason or other her natural disposition prevented her from being a good wife to plaintiff. The judgment is affirmed.