Breece v. Jett, 37824

• Decision Date: 30 August 1977
• Docket Number: No. 37824,37824
• Citation: 556 S.W.2d 696
• Parties: Sharon A. BREECE, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Mishka C. JETT, Defendant-Appellant. . Louis District, Division Four
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals

Page 696

556 S.W.2d 696

Sharon A. BREECE, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Mishka C. JETT, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 37824.

Missouri Court of Appeals, St. Louis District, Division Four.

Aug. 30, 1977.

Francis L. Ruppert, Ruppert & Schlueter, Clayton, for appellant.

Armstrong, Teasdale, Kramer & Vaughan, Edwin S. Fryer, Edwin L. Noel, St. Louis, for respondent.

SIMEONE, Chief Judge.

I Introduction

This is an appeal by defendant-appellant, Mishka C. Jett, from a judgment of the circuit court of St. Louis County entered upon a jury verdict on October 10, 1975, which awarded the plaintiff-respondent, Mrs. Sharon A. Breece, $3,500 actual damages and $3,000 punitive damages on Count I of her petition for seduction under a promise of marriage, and $8,000 actual damages and $2,500 punitive damages on Count II of her petition for the "conversion" of certain tangible property and money which the jury found was owned by or due to Mrs. Breece and which, under given instructions, Mr. Jett refused to return to her.

The defendant, Mr. Jett, filed a counterclaim alleging that Mrs. Breece had converted several items of his personal property and prayed damages therefor. The jury found in favor of the plaintiff on the counterclaim. He does not appeal that issue.

Mr. Jett, the appellant, urges error (1) in the giving of certain instructions on the seduction and "conversion" counts of plaintiff's petition and in the giving of the damage instructions both actual and punitive, (2) in that the verdict was excessive on Count II and (3) in that the trial court failed to grant his motion for directed verdict on the seduction count at the close of the plaintiff's case and again at the close of all the evidence.

II The Facts

Since the appellant, Mr. Jett, urges that the trial court erred in failing to grant a directed verdict, we must, under the authorities, review the evidence in the light most favorable to the plaintiff and give her the benefit of all reasonable inferences to be drawn therefrom. Rehg v. Giancola, 391 S.W.2d 934, 937 (Mo.App.1965).

Sharon A. Breece, age 29 at the time these events occurred, was, in 1973, a secretary in the mathematics department at Florissant Valley Community College. She had been married to Louis Gerald Breece on February 25, 1961 when she was 18 years old. The marriage produced a daughter, Robin, who was approximately 8 years old in 1973. Sharon was divorced from Mr. Breece on February 27, 1973. In March 1973 she lived at 10500 Lilac Avenue in St. Louis County and had many items of household furniture therein.

Mishka C. (Mike) Jett was employed as an assistant professor of political science at the college and was a city planner and a consultant for several municipalities including Columbia, Illinois. Mr. Jett had been an assistant professor at the college for about three years at the time of trial. In 1950 he married Anna Lee Dotson and a child, Spencer, was born of that marriage. In 1953 his wife died and in 1954 he married Rosemary Mueller. They had three children Thomas, Michelle and Eddie. Eddie was about the same age as Mrs. Breece's daughter, Robin. Mr. Jett and Rosemary separated in October 1971, but there is some dispute as to the official date they were divorced. The Illinois divorce decree indicated that the parties were officially divorced on April 4, 1973, but the hearing in Illinois and one document indicated they were divorced on March 14, 1973.

During the time of these events Jett was living either in Collinsville, Illinois or with his mother in Belleville, Illinois. In January 1973 he entered into a lease-purchase agreement with Mr. Leon Gordon to lease and purchase a home at 4224 Roland Avenue in Pasedena Hills. He was to take possession on June 1, 1973.

While working at the community college Sharon first became "aware" of Mr. Jett in October 1972 when they were on a compensation committee of the college. Their first real meeting occurred on March 1, 1973 when they attended a committee meeting at Forest Park Community College and Sharon "rode home with Mr. Jett." On the ride they discussed the work of the committee, their children and other matters. Two days later, on March 3, 1973 ¹, after an evening theater performance at the college, there was a college-sponsored party at Jack's restaurant. Sharon attended the party with a friend, Susan Seeley Morrow, and met other friends there Wendy Chytka, Nancy Wright and Ronald Eldringhoff, a faculty member. Mr. Jett was also at the party and joined the group. At the party Mr. Jett "paid a lot of attention to" Sharon. During the course of the conversation, he indicated that he was divorced. ² That evening Sharon and Mike spent about four hours together. Jett made a "big to do about being over the hill, that he was turning 40, you know." When the evening was over, Jett and Sharon drove her friends home and then returned to the restaurant parking lot where they "talked a long time." They talked about their children, that they were divorced and "the problems we had in marriage." The evening ended with "kind of like a friendly kiss." Over the next few days they saw each other on several evenings and Sharon "liked him a lot and enjoyed talking to him, I guess. I felt very comfortable with him."

By March 14, "I really cared about him. I really did." She had the feeling that he "cared a lot for me." On March 16, Sharon and Mike went out to dinner to celebrate his birthday because he had indicated it was going to be his 40th birthday. ³ By March 16, "I knew I loved him" and Sharon thought that he felt the same way. According to Sharon, Jett proposed marriage to her on March 23, 1973. Sharon accepted.

Sharon testified that prior to the proposal on March 23 she did not have intercourse with Mike and prior to the date of the proposal she had never had intercourse except with her former husband, Louis.

That evening they discussed plans for the wedding and the sale of Sharon's home on Lilac. Mr. Jett (not Sharon) wrote in Sharon's diary under date of June 29, "I'm going to get married today!!!, to Mike Jett." During the next week, Jett told her repeatedly that he loved her and sometime during that week they decided on a date June 29, 1973 for the ceremony of marriage. The selection of a date apparently took place over lunch at the school cafeteria. After the discussion selecting the date, they then went to their friends, Susan Seeley Morrow and Ron Eldringhoff, and Jett asked Ron to be his best man and Sharon asked Susan to be her maid of honor.

Sometime between March 23 and 30, Jett asked Sharon to accompany him to Columbia, Missouri to attend a meeting in which he was to participate.

The day before they left, March 29, "with the anticipation of marriage" Sharon went to her gynecologist to obtain "some birth control pills." ⁴ The doctor gave her some. She stated that she started taking them on May 6.

On March 30, Sharon and Mike went to the Columbia meeting and registered at a motel as Mr. and Mrs. Mishka Jett. That night they "made love." ⁵ At that time Sharon believed that Mike was divorced and believed that he was going to marry her. Sometime later, Sharon confided to a friend who stayed with Robin during the Columbia trip that she had had intercourse with Jett in Columbia.

On April 6, Sharon and Mike visited Reverend Robert A. Ottoline, pastor of St. Ann's Church, to discuss marriage plans and to obtain permission from church authorities to be married in the church. During the interview Father Ottoline took notes. His notes indicated that Jett told Father Ottoline he was born in 1933 (not 1931) and was divorced in March, 1972. The priest forwarded a letter to his superiors seeking permission for the couple to be married in the church.

In April, Sharon and Mike picked out furniture, silver and china and other household items.

On May 2, Mike, as chairman of the salary schedule committee of the college, sent a memorandum to the members calling a meeting of the committee. At the bottom of the memorandum he stated "Have a good weekend. I will. (Sharon and I are picking out our rings)." Handwritten at the bottom were the words "Love you." Sharon received this memorandum.

On May 3, Sharon "contracted verbally" with Mr. Denny Krupinski to build some bookcases for Mike's study in the home he was to take possession of on June 1 4224 Roland Avenue. Sharon paid Krupinski $175.00 and later paid him a total of $275.00 and at the time of the trial still owed him $250.00.

On May 10, Sharon's friends gave her a wedding shower, and on May 19, Sharon and Mike went to pick out wedding rings at a local jewelry store. They visited the store and an exhibit indicated that the engravings would be "I love you Sharon" and "I love you Mishka."

On May 21, a mathematics division party was held at the college at which both Sharon and Mike wore nametags indicating a "Newly Wed To Be."

On June 6, Sharon and Mike bought two red velvet chairs which became, among other items, the subject of dispute in the suit and Sharon "put them on my Master Charge." She paid "(e)very penny" for them.

June 15 was an eventful day in the life of Sharon. On that date (1) she closed the sale of her house on Lilac Avenue and received for the sale a few days later June 20 $10,000 net ⁶; (2) she quit her job as a secretary "(b) ecause we were going to be married and Mike asked me to quit"; (3) Sharon and Mike went to dinner at Jack's restaurant to "celebrate my last day at work"; and (4) the first postponement of the wedding occurred. "He told me that the wedding was going to have to be postponed, and the reason he gave me it was going to have to be postponed was because he was working in Columbia and he was really busy and couldn't get time off for our honeymoon. We had hoped to take off." He thought that the wedding would be "completed in two weeks, and he said no longer than a month." Sharon agreed to the postponement.

Since Sharon had sold her home on Lilac Avenue and the...