60 Iowa 301 | Iowa | 1882
I. The plaintiff and the defendant Sesterhen, were married in year 1866. The plaintiff is now about fifty-three years old, and the defendant is some years younger. The plaintiff had been residing with her brother upon a farm, and neither of the parties owned any real estate. The plaintiff had' kept house for her brother for a number of years. After the marriage, plaintiff’s brother gave the parties some household furniture, and he gave to the defendant other personal property and $300 in money, amounting in all to from $500 to $600. He also conveyed to the defendant thirty acres of land, of the value $100. He conveyed to the plaintiff the forty-acre homestead upon which they all resided, which conveyance contained certain reservations to himself. After-wards he gave the plaintiff full title and possession of the homestead. When this last transaction took place, the defendant paid to the plaintiff’s brother $1,000. Soon after she received full title she conveyed the homestead to the defendant. During the 'marriage the defendant became the owner of an additional eighty acres of land, which the parties improved and put in cultivation. There are no children the issue of the marriage.
The parties, as above stated, resided on their farm, and, so far as appears, each labored industriously — the plaintiff at times going into the fields and assisting in the farm work as well as doing the house work. The husband was given to occasional intoxication. There were frequent disagreements between them, and on several occasions the defendant used personal violence towards the plaintiff. ■ She left her house on two or three occasions because of personal abuse, and after a time, at his solicitation, she returned. During one of these absences she filed a petition for a divorce, which was after-wards withdrawn. In September, 1880, he came home about eleven o’clock iti the night, and, upon the merest pretense, and without any provocation, he struck, beat, and choked her, and in so doing, and while pushing her about the room, he knocked down the stove-pipe, threw over the tea-kettle, upset a burning kerosene lamp, which broke, and the oil took fire; and after he had chastised her to his satisfaction, he got a gun and went out and fired it off three times. At this time we think the evidence shows that the plaintiff suffered considerable personal injury. It is idle to argue that to call a wife from her bed, and abuse and maltreat her in this manner, is not egal cruelty, as frequently defined by this court.
It is said, however, that-this offense was condoned, because the final separation did not take place until March, 1881.
Affirmed.