61 Wash. 146 | Wash. | 1910
Appellant and respondent were married at Bellingham, July 26,1907. Both had been previously married and each was possessed of some property, appellant having, as the trial judge found, about $10,000, and respondent about $2,500. The property had never been commingled, and was owned separately at the time the decree was entered. The parties came together through correspondence, following an advertisement inserted by appellant in a spiritualistic j ournal published in Chicago, stating that he desired to secure a housekeeper. There is nothing in the findings of the court to indicate that respondent ever had any real affection for
A motion is made to strike what purports to be a statement of the facts, being the letters written by respondent to appellant pending the negotiations which culminated in their marriage. These letters are here, being referred to in the findings, “and which said exhibits are made a part of these findings as fully as if specifically set forth herein.” No other
The findings show no equities whatever in favor of respondent. She designedly undertook to, and did, put herself in a legal position where she believed she could demand, at the hands of the law, a share of appellant’s property. She charged unspeakable cruelties to insure her cause, all of which the court rejected as unsustained. There was no property requiring division, nor was respondent in necessitous circumstances. There is no ground, in fact, to sustain the arbitrary allowance of $1,000 to respondent, unless it be that she was the legal wife of appellant. This, as we have heretofore held, is not enough. To allow a recovery in this case would put a premium upon the cupidity of a designing woman, and invite the adventuress to invade the property of her victim, sanctioned and encouraged by the law. In State ex
“Alimony or maintenance and counsel fees are not granted as a matter of course or upon the mere allegation of marriage. Neither is the order imposed as a penalty, but to compel the performance of a duty, and must be sustained on equitable grounds, having reference to the relative situation of the parties.”
And in Pringle v. Pringle, 55 Wash. 93, 104 Pac. 135, the rule was declared that,
“If she [the wife] be otherwise provided for or have property in her own right, there can be no reason for the assertion of the right to an allowance out of the separate property of her husband.”
In all cases of this kind or character, the court should be governed by the facts of the particular case before it. Respondent cast the die and lost. Under such a state of facts, the rule of justice should be to leave the parties as they were at the time of their marriage.
The allowance of attorney’s fees and the costs of a particular action is a matter peculiarly within the discretion and province of the trial judge. No reason is suggested, and we find none in the record, which would warrant us in denying that part of the decree allowing attorney’s fees in the lower court. This is an allowance, not to respondent, but to her counsel. This case will be remanded with instructions to the lower court to modify its decree, denying the allowance of $1,000, and charging appellant with the sum of $250 as counsel fees in the court below. Neither party will recover costs on appeal.
Rudkin, C. J., Mourns, and Cuow, JJ., concur.