39 A.2d 690 | Md. | 1944
John Eddy Stevens and Daisy E. Stevens were married on August 29, 1918. Two children, a son and a daughter, were born of this marriage. They lived at several places in Annapolis and in Anne Arundel County but, for a number of years prior to their separation on September 3, 1940, their home was on Dean Street in Annapolis. On September 3, 1940, while Mrs. Stevens was in Baltimore for the day, Mr. Stevens took his clothes and left his home. He returned later for his personal effects, but has never returned to resume marital relations with his wife, although she has requested him to do so. A few days later Mrs. Stevens instituted suit in the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County for a divorce a mensa et thoro on the ground of desertion, in which suit an award of alimony pendente lite in the amount of $16 per week was made. No further action has been taken in that suit. On March 5, 1943, Mr. Stevens instituted suit in the same Court for a divorce a vinculo matrimonii on the ground of abandonment. To the bill of complaint in this case, Mrs. Stevens filed her answer denying the abandonment and alleging that Mr. Stevens had abandoned her and that he was guilty of adultery. The answer was filed on March 17, and on the same day Mrs. Stevens filed in said suit a cross-bill of complaint asking for a divorce a vinculomatrimonii on the grounds of abandonment and desertion, and of adultery, for permanent alimony and for alimony pendente lite and counsel fees. Mr. Stevens answered the cross-bill, denying the abandonment and desertion, and the adultery. Testimony was taken before an Examiner. The Chancellor, by his decree, dismissed the original bill filed by Mr. *601 Stevens, granted Mrs. Stevens a divorce a vinculo matrimonii, and ordered Mr. Stevens to pay permanent alimony in the amount of $16 per week, counsel fees to her solicitor and the costs of suit. It is from this decree that the present appeal is taken.
The record is a voluminous one, but much of the testimony is irrelevant and immaterial. Again, much of it relates to the alleged adultery of the husband, and, as the decree a vinculomatrimonii is based on the husband's desertion and not on his adultery, it is unnecessary for us to enter into a detailed discussion of that portion of the testimony pertaining to the adultery. It is sufficient for us to state that we agree with the Chancellor's conclusion that the wife did not meet the burden imposed upon her to prove her husband's adultery. Steinla v.Steinla,
The appellant urges, however, that the fact that his wife repeatedly accused him of infidelity is sufficient to bring this case within the rule laid down in the case of Silverberg v.Silverberg, supra, where it was held that malicious and false accusations of unchasity on the part of the wife made by the husband in the presence of his own and her friends were calculated to affect her health and destroy her peace of mind and happiness and were sufficient, when considered in relation to other acts of the husband, to justify a divorce a mensa etthoro on the ground of cruelty or excessively vicious conduct. But the record in this case discloses that Mrs. Stevens made no public accusations of unchastity against her husband. As we have already stated, her husband's conduct was such as justly to arouse her suspicion and her accusations were always in private with her husband, with their children, with his alleged paramour, Mrs. Woolford, or with Mrs. Woolford's husband, and the purpose of the accusations was not to humiliate and degrade her husband but to persuade him to cease his attentions to Mrs. *603 Woolford and his intimate association with her. This was not cruelty of treatment, but only what any normal wife, who loved her husband and wanted to maintain a happy home for her family, would have done under the circumstances. But the husband, instead of heeding her entreaties, persisted in continuing the association and finally left the home. His conduct in so doing, under the circumstances of this case, constituted abandonment and desertion of his wife. As the abandonment has continued for the statutory period and is deliberate and final and the separation beyond any reasonable expectation of reconciliation, Mrs. Stevens is entitled to a divorce a vinculo matrimonii.
The appellant does not challenge the decree in respect to the amount of permanent alimony and counsel fee. We find no reason to disturb the conclusion of the Chancellor on the amount of permanent alimony awarded. And we feel that the counsel fee was a reasonable one.
For the reasons given the decree will be affirmed in all respects.
Decree affirmed, costs to be paid by the appellant.