169 Ga. 524 | Ga. | 1929
Lead Opinion
Edgar F. Ross brought a libel for divorce against Mrs.'Cora M. Eoss, on the ground of cruel treatment. The.wife filed an answer denying acts of cruel treatment, and filed a cross-petition praying that she be granted a decree of total divorce. A second verdict was rendered on the plaintiff's petition, authorizing a total divorce between the parties, and finding that the plaintiff and the defendant sho'uld have the right to marry again. The jury also awarded $1,000 for permanent alimony. A first verdict on the cross-petition was awarded to the defendant. She made a motion for a new trial, containing only the general grounds, and sought to have the second verdict granting the husband a total divorce set aside. The court overruled the motion, and the defendant excepted.
The evidence given by the husband in this case to show cruel treatment is quite lengthy, but the sum and substance of it is, that the wife was exceedingly disagreeable in her conduct towards him;
In Ray v. Ray, 106 Ga. 263 (32 S. E. 91), a libel for divorce by the wife was based upon the ground that the husband had circulated reports among his neighbors to the effect that the wife was untrue to her marital vows. In that case this court said: “It is difficult to conceive of greater cruelty that could be inflicted upon the mind of a virtuous woman than a circulation of such reports. The mental anguish thus occasioned would doubtless be more keenly felt and would produce more mental pain than could result from personal injuries by physical blows. Unquestionably such cruelty would not only justify a separation, but would sustain an action for total divorce.” This court cited Myrick v. Myrick, and Glass v. Wynn, supra, to support the doctrine so laid down. In Wilkinson
Under the authorities cited and under the facts set out in the evidence in this case, the jury was authorized to grant a total divorce; and the trial judge did not err in'overruling the motion for new trial.
Judgment affirmed.
Dissenting Opinion
dissenting. After considering it, in view of the decision in Ring v. Ring, 118 Ga. 183 (44 S. E. 861, 62 L. R. A. 878), and the cases that follow it, we do not think that there is any evidence of cruel treatment in the sense in which those
It is true that the defendant testified that the wife “threatened to kill him;” but any one reading this record will readily understand that this was an idle threat; all sound and fury, signifying nothing. The husband himself, who testified at great length, did not pretend in any part of his testimony that he had any apprehension that she would carry this threat into execution. In character it is very much like the threat of an angry mother who gives free course to her tongue and threatens hex child with dire punishment and to “half kill him” if he does or does not do such or such a thing. There is not the slightest evidence to show that Mrs. Eoss was ever guilty of any conduct that indicated that she would kill or “half kill” her husband, or inflict upon him any bodily hurt. In fact the husband does not charge in his petition that he was ever under apprehension of bodily hurt at the hands of his wife.
But there are portions of the testimony of the husband which we have pxxrposely refrained from discussing up to this point, to which we must now advert. It is charged in the petition that the defendant voluntarily and without cause or reason “separated herself from the plaintiff during the latter portion of 1925; that she refused, for reasons unknown to plaintiff, to occupy the same sleeping quarters and to cohabit with plaintiff as husband and wife; . . that immediately thereafter she began to nag and abuse plaintiff by telling him that she did not love him, xvished that he woxxld get out, and that she would not live with him; . . that petitioner had never given defendant any cause or reason for her actions towards him; that her separation from him was voluntary, and defendant’s interest in petitioner was only a monetary one.” In portions of his testimony plaintiff in substance charges that the wife, thoxxgh she continued to reside in the matrimonial domicile, wilfully, persistently, and without justification denied him all his conjugal rights, showing an intent to cast him off as her husband, and that from 1925 she had continued to deny him his conjugal
Concurrence Opinion
specially concurring. I concur in the judgment of affirmance, being of the opinion that under all the evidence in the case and the deductions which the jury was authorized to draw from that evidence the verdict in favor of the defendant in error was authorized; but I do not concur in all that is said in the opinion. Mere “nagging” on the part of the wife will not authorize the granting of a divorce; but in this case the jury was authorized to find that the conduct of the wife was such' as to actually impair the health of the husband and put him in fear that he was in actual danger.