41 A.D.2d 613 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1973
Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County, entered on June 12, 1972, declaring that the parties were lawfully married, granting plaintiff separation and alimony and counsel fees, modified, on the law and the facts, only to the extent of reducing the award of alimony to $250 per week and, as so modified, is otherwise in all respects affirmed, without costs and without disbursements. Having regard to the length of time of this marriage, the ability of the wife to be self-supporting, the circumstances of the case and of the respective parties (Domestic Relations Law, § 236), we feel that the reduced award is fair and proper. If the facts and the Texas law were as stated by the dissent, we would agree that the appellant should prevail. But the dissenter has stated only his view of the record which is in direct conflict with the findings of fact and conclusions of law made by the learned and experienced Trial Justice in a scholarly opinion after a 10-day trial. The plaintiff wife, described by the trial court as a young college student and a lifelong resident of Texas, brought this separation action against the defendant husband described by the same court as a 42-year-old divorced, twice married, keen, successful, sophisticated multimillionaire businessman. The record furnishes ample support for the findings made, including the applicable Texas law. Furthermore, we agree with the Trial Justice that. defendant should not now be permitted to attack the validity of his marriage to plaintiff on the ground that he lacked the necessary good faith to marry her because he knew that