Finn v. Finn, 13589.
Decision Date | 05 January 1945 |
Docket Number | No. 13589.,13589. |
Citation | 185 S.W.2d 579 |
Parties | FINN v. FINN. |
Court | Texas Court of Appeals |
Appeal from District Court, Dallas County; Paine L. Bush, Judge.
Suit for divorce by Evelyn Finn against Edward J. Finn. From a judgment for plaintiff, defendant appeals.
Reversed and remanded.
G. H. Crane, of Dallas, for appellant.
Bonney & Paxton, M. M. Wade, and Chas. S. McCombs, all of Dallas, for appellee.
This is a divorce suit instituted by the wife, alleging that her husband,
It will be observed that the allegations are within the language of the legislative enactment, consisting generally of fussing and nagging. The acts of cruelty are not specifically stated so as to enable the court to determine whether they constitute excesses, cruelty and outrages, as contemplated by the statute. "Fussing and nagging" are insufficient allegations on which to base a divorce. The acts of cruelty must be specifically stated to render the petition sufficient to meet attack as being fundamentally erroneous. General allegations of excesses, cruel treatment or outrages are mere conclusions of the pleader. Allegations that the defendant cursed and abused the plaintiff unmercifully or abused the latter severely (Claunch v. Claunch, Tex.Civ.App., 203 S.W. 930); that the plaintiff slandered defendant and told a certain person that the defendant was leading an immoral life (Denning v. Denning, Tex.Civ.App., 99 S.W. 1029); that the husband accused the wife of theft (Nogees v. Nogees, 7 Tex. 538, 58 Am. Dec. 78), or that the husband charged the wife with unchastity or adultery (Bingham v. Bingham, Tex.Civ.App., 149 S.W. 214), and many other general allegations not followed by specific charges, are insufficient.
Moreover, the evidence, to warrant a decree of divorce, must of course be introduced. The trial court should refuse to grant a divorce where the evidence fails to establish cruelty or other grounds enumerated in the statute. The statute is plain, leaving no judicial discretion to be exercised, other than a determination of the sufficiency of pleadings and evidence to warrant the decree. Vernon's Ann.Civ.St. art. 4629. The statute should be strictly construed. When the lawmaking power has determined the policy with respect to and has specified the ground upon which divorce is authorized, it remains but for the judiciary to enforce the legislative will. The validity of the marriage relationship is the substructure upon which the peace, happiness and perpetuity of society depends. Courts are not at liberty to permit sympathy for the unhappy condition in which a couple has become engulfed, because of imperfections of temper or difference in religious views, to control their judgment. Courts must take the plain provisions of the statute and the well-established course of court decisions as their guide. In this case, the evidence is little more specific than the pleadings. Plaintiff testified that defendant This is the extent of her grievances. Evidently, the related fussing and discipline of their minor child are not the foreboding of an unhappy future for themselves and their children. The husband and wife are of different religions—he a Jew and she a gentile; they lived in the home of the wife's mother and, according to the record here presented, the wife's family attempted to interpose their religious views upon the husband in an effort to change his religious faith. Evidently that could not be accomplished; thus, as plaintiff alleged, "plaintiff and defendant have no common interests." Appellant raises the issue of fundamental error in pleadings and proof —judgment should have been rendered for the defendant. Evidently the pleadings and evidence are insufficient, hence it becomes the duty of this Court to render such judgment as should have been rendered by the court below, that plaintiff take nothing by her suit; it is so ordered.
Reversed and rendered.
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Crenshaw v. Crenshaw
...particulars as to the words spoken or the things done that constituted the cause of action alleged.’' To same effect see Finn v. Finn, Tex.Civ.App., 185 S.W.2d 579;Kolopen v. Kolopen, 148 Pa.Super. 311, 25 A.2d 569. Plaintiff's so-called cross-complaint specifies but two dates before the co......
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Waite v. Waite
...has specified the ground upon which divorce is authorized, it remains but for the judiciary to enforce the legislative will." Finn v. Finn, 185 S.W.2d 579, 581 (Tex.Civ.App.-Dallas 1945, no writ). A court of law cannot invade the legislature's realm or undo its work absent a constitutional ......
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Crenshaw v. Crenshaw
... ... done that constituted the cause of action alleged.'' ... To same effect see Finn v. Finn, Tex.Civ.App., 185 ... S.W.2d 579; Kolopen v. Kolopen, 148 Pa.Super. 311, ... 25 A.2d ... ...
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