Hall v. Hall

Decision Date27 July 1976
Docket NumberNo. 978,978
PartiesArthur D. HALL, III v. Patricia R. HALL.
CourtCourt of Special Appeals of Maryland

Wallace Dann, with whom were Bregel & Bregel, Chartered, Baltimore, on the brief for appellant.

Donald F. Rogers, with whom were Lichter, Coleman & Rogers, Towson, on the brief, for appellee.

Argued before MORTON, POWERS and GILBERT, JJ.

MORTON, Judge.

The appellant, Arthur D. Hall, III, has appealed from decrees issued by Judge J. Albert Roney, Jr., after hearings held in the Circuit Court for Cecil County, wherein the appellant's bill of complaint for an annulment of his marriage to the appellee, Patricia R. Hall, was dismissed; the appellee was granted a divorce a vinculo matrimonii; the ownership of properties claimed by the parties was determined; and the appellee was awarded permanent alimony in the amount of $115 per week.

The appellant raises ten separate issues in this appeal and since his attack upon the decrees is largely grounded upon the asserted insufficiency of the evidence to support the chancellor's action, we shall set forth in full Judge Roney's findings of fact and conclusions of law:

'COURT'S OPINION

At 1:48 p.m., on June 28, 1974, Arthur D. Hall filed his Bill of Complaint for an annulment of his marriage to Patricia R. Hall, and at 3:36 p.m., on the same date, Patricia filed her Bill of Complaint against her husband Arthur for a divorce a vinculo. On April 3, 1975, Arthur filed an Amended Bill of Complaint. The cases were tried together with consent of counsel and the Court has treated them more in the nature of a Bill and Cross-Bill than as separate cases. For the purpose of simplicity the parties will be referred to herein as Arthur and Patricia.

Arthur's Bill of Complaint for an annulment and Patricia's Bill for divorce are both based on the fact that at the time of their marriage on June 13, 1970, Arthur was still lawfully married to his first wife Helen and therefore his marriage to Patricia was bigamous. It was agreed and stipulated by the parties, however, that there was no fraud or deception on the part of either party in entering into their marriage, as both were unaware that the divorce ostensibly obtained by Arthur's first wife Helen on October 14, 1968, in the Circuit Court for St. Clair County, Pell City, Alabama, was invalid. In addition to asking for an annulment of his marriage Arthur prays the Court to declare all property, real and personal, titled in both their names, either as joint tenants or tenants by the entireties, as his sole property and to account for certain moneys to Arthur D. Hall, Inc. Patricia seeks, in addition to a divorce a vinculo, alimony, attorney's fees, and a determination of the ownership of the jointly held personal property.

It is imminently clear that this marriage must be dissolved because it was bigamous at its inception. The question is how it should be done-by annulment or divorce.

On September 7, 1947, Arthur married one Helen S. Hall, and they thereafter lived together as man and wife until August 1966 when they mutually agreed to live separate and apart. In December 1966 Arthur met Patricia who was living separate and apart from her husband. Each was well aware of the marital status of the other and of the proceedings by their respective spouses to obtain a divorce. On December 1, 1967, Patricia's husband, James W. Flosdorf, was granted an absolute divorce from her by the Court of Common Pleas for Franklin County, Pennsylvania. On October 14, 1968, Arthur's wife Helen ostensibly obtained, an absolute divorce from him in the Circuit Court for St. Clair County, Alabama, a copy of which decree was received by Arthur from one John Ike Griffith, Attorney, Birmingham, Alabama. Relying in good faith upon the authenticity and validity of the Alabama divorce decree, Arthur and Patricia were married on June 13, 1970, in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. After living for awhile at Washington Crossings, Pennsylvania, they purchased a 220-acre farm near Port Deposit in Cecil County, Maryland, in December, 1971, for which they received a deed, made to them as tenants by the entireties, dated April 7, 1972. The farm then became not only their residence but the principal office of A. D. Hall, Inc., an engineer and consulting business formed by Arthur and Patricia as incorporators and sole stockholders in May 1971. In a telephone conversation with his first wife Helen in August 1973, to which Patricia was listening in, Arthur and Patricia learned for the first time from a remark that Helen made that there was a possibility that the Alabama divorce was invalid. Arthur instigated an immediate investigation into the matter and the invalidity of the Alabama divorce was confirmed by a certificate of the Register of the Circuit Court for St. Clair County, Alabama, in Equity, dated September 26, 1973, which was forwarded to Arthur by his attorney on October 2, 1973. Arthur immediately filed suit on October 10, 1973, against Helen S. Hall in the Circuit Court for Cecil County, Maryland, for a divorce a vinculo on the ground of separation of the parties since August 1966, and he was awarded an absolute divorce by decree of the Court dated December 21, 1973. Except for three occasions when Patricia left Arthur for a brief period of time (not more than a week or ten days at the longest), the parties lived together as man and wife until May 4, 1974, when Patricia left the domicile and they have lived separate and apart ever since.

The fact that Arthur married Patricia while his marriage to his first wife was still in effect makes the marriage void ab initio. The Court therefore can either annul the marriage or dissolve it by granting a divorce. Article 16, Sec. 24. Clayton v. Clayton, 231 Md. 74 (188 A.2d 550).

It is conceded that the parties entered into the marriage in good faith. Thereafter they pursued a rather normal marital relationship for almost four years during which time they sincerely believed they were legally married. An annulment of the marriage fails to recognize any marital relationship between the parties, while a divorce, on the other hand, does recognize the marital relationship. It can hardly be denied that a normal marital relationship did exist between the parties to this cause, even after Arthur obtained a divorce from his first wife in December 1973. Under such circumstances this Court believes that the dissolution of the marriage by divorce is more appropriate than by declaring it annulled.

In his amended Bill of Complaint Arthur alleges, in addition to the marriage being bigamous, that Patricia perpetrated a fraud upon him in that she was guilty of adulterous conduct while married to her former husband which he did not discover until after he married her, and that had he known of her prior adulterous conduct he would not have married her. The Court is not so convinced. He was fully aware of the pending divorce action of Patricia and her former husband in which the husband was the complaining party. He accompanied her on visits to her attorney and they discussed the divorce action on several occasions. He certainly must have been aware of all the details of the divorce. Furthermore, it was admitted that he and Patricia carried on an intimate relationship while both were still married. If she would carry on an adulterous relationship with him, it certainly should have come as no surprise and shock to him to learn that she may have had an adulterous relationship with others. The court is just not persuaded that he would not have married her had he known of her prior adulterous conduct. The burden is on him to prove his allegation of fraud to entitle him to an annulment of his marriage, and he has failed to do so.

The Court will therefore deny the prayer in Arthur Hall's Amended Bill of Complaint for an annulment of the marriage and grant the prayer of Patricia Hall for a divorce a vinculo.

The Court next considers Patricia's prayer for alimony. In the Clayton case, supra, it was established that alimony could be awarded incident to a divorce granted on the ground that the husband had another wife living at the time of the marriage. Arthur challenges her right to alimony on two grounds, namely, that she is the party at fault in deserting her husband, and secondly, that alimony may not be awarded in cases of divorce based on nonculpatory grounds.

The case of Flanagan v. Flanagan, 270 Md. 335 (311 A.2d 407), puts to rest the second argument. The Court stated (page 338 (311 A.2d page 409)) that:

'We have consistently construed this section (Sec. 3. of Art. 16) when applied in connection with divorces on nonculpatory grounds to permit an allowance of alimony to the wife regardless of who originally initiated the action. * * * Therefore, in any suit for divorce on nonculpatory grounds, dissolution of the marriage permits the court to consider the granting of alimony so long as the question is put in issue by either the original bill or a cross-bill, or by requesting such affirmative relief in an answer.'

Arthur's argument that Patricia is the party at fault in bringing to an end their marital relationship because she deserted him without just cause or reason is not supported by the facts. The one thing above all others that disrupted this marriage and was directly responsible for it ending in divorce was the shocking revelation that they were and had been living together while not legally married to each other because of the invalidity of the divorce proceedings instituted by his first wife. The other reasons assigned by Patricia for leaving, namely, the alleged sexual advances of Arthur toward her daughter, and his abusive and violent conduct toward her were too remote in time to have been instrumental in causing her to leave when she did.

The discovery of the invalidity of Arthur's divorce from his first wife directly precipitated the separation....

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