150 Iowa 58 | Iowa | 1911
The plaintiff prayed for separate maintenance on the grounds of cruelty and adultery alleged to have been committed by defendant. The latter, in a cross-petition, demanded a divorce because of alleged cruelty and desertion by plaintiff. As relief was granted on defendant’s cross-petition, the evidence tending to support it first may be examined.
Should there have been a decree of separate maintenance as prayed by plaintiff?
With respect to the charge of adultery, it is enough to say that no more than a suspicion was raised. The letter introduced in evidence did not purport to be addressed to defendant, nor to be signed by the woman named in the petition; and this, in connection with finding her picture in his possession and seeing her at the train, was all the evidence connecting the two. Other associations of his indicate depravity of taste, rather than the commission of crime.
Nor are we inclined to think there was such cruelty as to endanger plaintiff’s life. Aside from the circumstance of warming the dynamite on the stove, her testimony of his personal 'mistreatment of her was entirely uncorroborated. Moreover, no evidence of any impairment of her health was adduced, and no one reading the record can believe there wras danger from physical violence of the defendant.
The trouble arose because of his omission to properly provide for his family, but this is not ground for divorce, unless amounting to such cruelty as to endanger life. But she was not without means, for upon her father’s death she took, under his will, the life tenancy of property yielding an income of $100 per month, subject to an annuity of $100 payable to her mother during life. To meet expenses, she was compelled to borrow on this, but was enabled to care for the family. They had enjoyed plenty until business difficulties overtook her husband, and had she sympathized and assisted instead of blamed and he, in