Baker v. Baker

• Decision Date: 25 June 1974
• Citation: 166 Conn. 476,352 A.2d 277
• Court: Connecticut Supreme Court
• Parties: Nedra C. BAKER v. Carleton B. BAKER.

Page 277

352 A.2d 277

166 Conn. 476

Nedra C. BAKER v. Carleton B. BAKER.

Supreme Court of Connecticut.

June 25, 1974.

Wesley W. Horton, Canton, with whom, on the brief, was William R. Moller, Hartford, for appellant (defendant).

Paul W. Orth, Hartford, for appellee (plaintiff).

Before HOUSE, C.J., and SHAPIRO, LOISELLE, MacDONALD and BOGDANSKI, JJ.

MacDONALD, Associate Justice.

By complaint dated July 23, 1970, the plaintiff, Nedra C. Baker, sought a legal separation from her husband, the defendant, Carleton B. Baker, on the ground of intolerable cruelty. By an amendment to her complaint dated August 17, 1971, the plaintiff altered her prayer for relief insofar as it sought a legal separation, substituting therefor a prayer for a divorce. The defendant contested the action and, by way of a special defense, asserted that the court was without jurisdiction to decide the matter in that neither party was domiciled in Connecticut. The matter was referred to Hon. Raymond E. Baldwin, a state referee, who, acting as the court, denied the defendant's motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction, granted the plaintiff a divorce and ordered lump sum alimony in the amount of $239,746 and a conveyance to the plaintiff of the defendant's half interest in certain property in Maine. The defendant has appealed from that judgment and also has appealed from a contempt judgment rendered against him in June, 1973, for failure to make support payments to the plaintiff during the pendency of the appeal as ordered by the court.

The defendant has made one of those wholesale attacks upon the finding which this court repeatedly has criticized and, apparently in vain, has attempted to discourage. ¹ Southern New England Contracting Co. v. State, 165 Conn. 644, 646, 345 A.2d 550; Pawlinski v. Allstate Ins. Co., 165 Conn. 1, 3, 327 A.2d 583. He has assigned as error the refusal of the trial court to find the facts set forth in ten paragraphs of his draft finding, the inclusion in the finding of thirty-eight paragraphs claimed to have been found without evidence and the inclusion of six paragraphs apparently alleged to have been found in language of doubtful meaning. He also assigned error in the reaching of twelve conclusions claimed to be unsupported by the subordinate facts, the overruling of seven claims of law and a ruling on evidence. The defendant, however, to some extent has simplified and clarified the basis of his appeal by abandoning some of his claims and by focusing primarily upon the following three issues: (1) whether the court had jurisdiction to grant the divorce; (2) the amount of the alimony award; and (3) the propriety of the contempt judgment.

The finding, which is not subject to material correction, ² reveals the following relevant facts: The plaintiff came to Connecticut from Maine in 1944 and in 1946 went to work for the defendant at the Simsbury Airport, which the defendant then owned. She was the only employee in the office, where she did bookkeeping and general clerical work. The plaintiff and the defendant worked long hours, including many weekends and evenings, and by the mid-1950s they had brought the airport from financial uncertainty to solidity. In March, 1957, just prior to their marriage, the defendant bought in his own name a residence on Willard Street in Simsbury, where the parties lived after the marriage. In 1962 they bought in their joint names a summer home on Chebeague Island in Maine where they spent long weekends. After their marriage the airport increased in size, activity and financial worth, a success to which the plaintiff's efforts contributed substantially. The defendant also acquired most of his other assets, including stocks, bonds and bank accounts, after the marriage. For her efforts at the airport the plaintiff was paid a weekly salary, which at the time of the separation in June, 1970, was $125. She used this money to buy clothing for herself and the defendant, food, and furnishings for the house in Simsbury, which she decorated largely from her own earnings.

In the summer of 1969 the parties spent a considerable amount of time socializing with Mr. and Mrs. Norman Ross, who also vacationed on Chebeague Island. The defendant became enamored of Mrs. Ross, and, in the fall and winter of 1969-70 and the spring of 1970, they were often together, surreptitiously, in motels and elsewhere. In July, 1970, Mrs. Ross left her husband and children and later began to live secretly with the defendant.

The defendant sold his airport business in May, 1970, for $450,000, accepting $100,000 in cash and a $350,000 mortgage payable in five annual installments of $70,000 each. The plaintiff worked temporarily for the new owner of the Simsbury Airport from May to early July, 1970, in order to set up the records and break in a new girl for the office work. Upon leaving this work, the plaintiff told the new owner that she intended to come back from her summer home in Maine and would contact him and return to work. On or about July 10, 1970, she went to Maine, intending to come back to Connecticut after some vacation. She had neither husband nor job in Simsbury to return to during the summer so she stayed on the Maine island all summer. She did not intend to make her domicil in Maine, but only to spend a portion of the summer there after the defendant left her. In October, 1970, she returned to the Simsbury residence for a day or so and went there again in December, 1970, for about a week, hoping that a reconciliation might be possible. In May, 1971, she spent about two weeks in the Simsbury house with her sister, and spent about a week there again in October, 1971, March, 1972, and May, 1972. Most of the rest of the time she stayed with and took care of her mother, who was not well, at the mother's home in Westbrook, Maine. Although the plaintiff did not like to live alone in the house in Simsbury because of certain needed repairs and water conditions on the premises, she did consider it her residence. Prior to the defendant's sale of the home in July, 1972, the plaintiff was there, packed up her things and had her furniture moved from there into storage in Hartford to await her final decision as to where to locate, knowing that the defendant intended to sell the house.

For some years prior to bringing this action, and until the time of trial, the plaintiff had her car registered in Connecticut, maintained bank accounts in Simsbury and was a registered voter and actually voted there. Most of her friends are in the Simsbury area and she is still considering returning there, depending on her mother's health. Until the divorce was granted, the plaintiff intended to remain in Connecticut. She was domiciled in Connecticut and had been for more than the statutory period at the time this action was begun and at no time prior to its institution had she abandoned her Connecticut domicil.

In August, 1970, the defendant still had business affairs at the Simsbury Airport. He had four accounts in Connecticut banks which were garnished on July 24, 1970. Furthermore, the deed from and mortgage to him regarding the airport sale had not yet been recorded, so the plaintiff attached this real estate on July 24, 1970. The defendant found the writ, summons and complaint at the Simsbury premises a few days after the sheriff made abode service on July 28, 1970, and gave the papers to his attorney, who entered a general appearance.

In late August or early September, 1970, the defendant instituted a divorce action in Maine against the plaintiff and she obtained counsel in Maine. After a hearing on November 17, 1970, the Maine action was dismissed for lack of jurisdiction, neither party naving the requisite Maine residency, and the Maine court awarded the plaintiff $250 in attorney's fees. Prior to this hearing, the defendant sent mail to the plaintiff at the Simsbury house. Shortly after the hearing, the plaintiff's Maine attorneys rendered her a bill for services, some of which were of assistance to her Connecticut counsel. This bill was paid partly by the plaintiff, partly by the defendant, and partly by the plaintiff's Connecticut attorneys. The plaintiff's Maine attorneys continued to render assistance to her Connecticut attorneys, at their request, and submitted bills totaling $3081.13 for such services, which remain unpaid because of the plaintiff's lack of funds. These bills were reasonable and necessary in connection with the plaintiff's Connecticut action.

It was at the defendant's request or insistence that the plaintiff amended her prayer for relief in this action from a legal separation to a divorce. The defendant did not file the financial affidavit required by § 380 of the Practice Book at any time, nor did he testify fully under oath as to his total estate. He did not answer the plaintiff's lengthy disclosure motion concerning his finances and was found in contempt for failure so to comply. The defendant thus forced the plaintiff to prove his assets as best she could. In addition to the above facts, the court also made numerous findings relating to the financial status of the parties which, for the sake of brevity, will not be reproduced herein.

From the foregoing the court concluded that the plaintiff was a resident of Connecticut at the time of the commencement of her divorce action; that she did not abandon her Connecticut domicil at any time prior to the hearing; that all amendments to her complaint were proper, related back to the date of the original complaint and were within the discretion of the court to grant; that the defendant also was a resident of Connecticut, at least until August, 1970, after he had received the divorce papers; and that the court had jurisdiction over the divorce action and the power to make all orders incident to a divorce. It also concluded that the allegations of the complaint had been proved and that the plaintiff should be granted a divorce, that the...