133 Iowa 425 | Iowa | 1907
The parties hereto were married September 2, 1891, and lived together happily until July, 1897. One child, Grace, was born in 1896, and the other, Malcolm, in 1898. This action was begun in September, 1905, and resulted in a decree of divorce in favor of the husband with the custody of both children and the exclusion of the wife from the home with a monthly stipend for support money. The relief granted was based on two grounds:"' (1) That
Pound the neck of the womb torn and very tender, with a patch of granulations about the size of a five-cent piece, the right upper prolapsus tender and enlarged, and she complained of pain in her right side, just below and anterior to the right shoulder, to' the front of the shoulder, and also on the right side of the neck. Her pulse was 12. That was the side where the breast was removed. Her temperature was 98, and she was quite nervous. I said £ torn ’; it means the same as laceration. The trouble probably continued from one of her confinements, which one I could not say. The ulcer occupied a space of the mouth of the womb about the size of a five-cent piece. The mouth or whole cervix is about as large as a 25-cent piece. The cervix means the lower end of the womb. There was some discharge from the ulcer. The birth of child is the commonest thing to cause laceration. It could be caused by other causes. It could be caused by manual disturbance, or sometimes caused by delivering a large tumor. The symptoms which usually accompany laceration of the womb are tenderness, the lips of the cervix all worked out, making it tender, with a discharge, with granulations or inflammation. I would expect that coition would be painful in defendant’s case. It was tender over the right ovary. That tenderness might have been produced by some slight inflammatory action. It probably followed from the laceration of the womb. The inflammation of the ovaries frequently happens from lacerations. The majority of patients are nervous, and get more*429 nervous tbe longer standing tbe case is. If long continued^ it'will seriously affect the health of the patient. The patient is inclined to be irritable. I think it has affected the defendant both in a nervous and in a physical way. . Some patients have desire for sexual intercourse, and some do not. The longer these troubles are allowed to run the more effect they have on the nervous system.
Cross-examination: “ I should think that intercourse would be painful -under the conditions I found existing in this case. I think it would cause aversion to- intercourse.I would not expect patients to solicit intercourse, nor advise them to have it. . . .”
Ee-direct examination: “ Under the condition I found existing, blood would sometimes follow the act of intercourse.” This evidence is undisputed, save by the plaintiff’s claim that he had examined defendant and discovered nothing of the kind, to which, as previously intimated, in view of what has been mentioned and Dr. Oliver’s testimony, we are not inclined to give credence. A more reasonable explanation is that the defendant, becoming engrossed in the practice of his profession and money getting and wearied by the complaints and fault-finding of her whom he had promised to cherish in sickness as well as in health, neglected to give her ailments the care and attention her condition demanded, and as a consequence much that he now complains of happened. To what has' been said should be added the fact that she underwent a surgical operation in the removal of a breast in January, 1894, and we have a very satisfactory showing of a reasonable cause for declining conjugal intercourse.
In duly or August, 1897, upon her invitation a young lady friend visited her, accompanied by a baby sister. The child was taken sick with scarlet fever. Defendant demanded her immediate removal from the house. The plaintiff isolated her with the sister and her mother, who came to care for the. child, in an upper room and treated her until she had recovered. The evidence is in conflict as to whether she declined to furnish food for them or they refused to receive it, and she objected to the neighbors bringing eatables. Certain it is that she accused her husband of being unduly intimate with the young woman, and when the latter departed told her never to return to her house again. At a later date she objected to him treating á woman some 55 years old because not responsible, with the intimation that their relations were improper, and in 1903, owing to her objection that he was “ too thick ” with the woman’s daughter he was compelled to give up an engagement to assist in an operation on the latter. In 1898 he claimed, and she de
Enough has been said to indicate the character of defendant’s treatment, without adverting to her insinuations as to some of his patients, her alleged neglect in preparing meals for him, her insistency that he obtain meals nowhere else, and possibly some other matters. ■ The plaintiff’s evidence was somewhat corroborated by the testimony of his sister that defendant had said to- her that she used to think she could not see the children get sick and die without their father, but could now, and that she thought he was running after other women, and that if he was and some one shot him, she would not shed a tear; by that of Mrs. Kracht, who in cautioning children in front of the house not to- throw water from the hose into the road, as this would scare her horse, had said to them, if they did, she would tell their father, whereupon defendant said, “You will-tell his papa, will you ? He will soothe all your trouble for you ”; by that of Mrs. Wagner that she did not want 'more children, and therefore locked her door as the best prevention, and advised her to do the same, and that she had heard her say as much to another, that she thought the doctor unduly intimate with other women, and aimed to be at his office Wednesday and Saturday afternoons, as there were certain ladies she desired to watch, that he did not do as much as he could in treating the witness and others, and that she
We have repeatedly held that such accusations of the wife, by the husband, when malicious and unfounded, may be such cruelty as to endanger life. Evans v. Evans, 82 Iowa, 462; Haight v. Haight, (Iowa) 82 N. W. 443. The difference in the situation of the husband is manifest. If innocent, he is not likely to regard seriously idle suspicious, even though lodged against him by his wife, nor is the
We áre satisfied, however, upon a separate examination of the entire record that the evidence falls far short of showing that a continuance of the marriage relation by these parties will be attended'with any d.anger to the plaintiff’s life, and' that, -with the restoration of defendant’s health, which, with appropriate treatement, seems probable, much that has been objectionable in her conduct will be obviated- She may continue to talk more than wisdom dictates, but divorce cannot be made the panacea for the infelicities of married life. If disappointment, suffering, and sorrow even be incident to the relation, it must be endured. The marriage yoke cannot be thrown off merely because it rides unevenly. The petition should have been dismissed. Appellee’s motion to dismiss is merely a renewal of a like motion previously overruled- and is likewise overruled, as is also appellant’s motion to strike appellee’s additional abstract. Appellant is allowed the sum of $150 with which