Harvey v. Harvey

• Decision Date: 18 January 1906
• Docket Number: 14,101
• Parties: ARTHUR P. HARVEY ET AL. v. CECILE ROSS HARVEY
• Court: Nebraska Supreme Court

106 N.W. 660

75 Neb. 557

ARTHUR P. HARVEY ET AL. v. CECILE ROSS HARVEY

No. 14,101

Supreme Court of Nebraska

January 18, 1906

ERROR to the district court for Keya Paha county: WILLIAM H WESTOVER, JUDGE. Affirmed.

AFFIRMED.

W. C Brown, A. L. Tingle and L. T. Genung, for plaintiffs in error.

Lear & Wilhite, contra.

OLDHAM C. AMES and LETTON, CC., concur.

OPINION

OLDHAM, C.

This was an action for the alienation of affections, in which the plaintiff, Cecile Ross Harvey, wife of George D. Harvey, alleged that William H. Harvey, Mary B. Harvey, and Arthur P. Harvey, who are respectively the father, mother and brother of George D. Harvey, conspired together, for the purpose of estranging and alienating the affections of George D. Harvey from the plaintiff, his wife, and causing him to abandon plaintiff, and refuse to live with her as her husband and to provide for her support and maintenance. The defendants answered jointly, admitting the marriage of plaintiff to George D. Harvey, and denying each and every other allegation in the petition. On issues thus joined, there was a trial to the court and jury, a verdict for the plaintiff for $ 3,000 damages, judgment on the verdict, and to reverse this judgment defendants bring error to this court.

The facts underlying this controversy are that for several years the defendants in this cause of action and George D. Harvey husband of the plaintiff, have resided together on a cattle ranch in Keya Paha county, Nebraska, known as the "Harvey Ranch." The two sons and the father were engaged in cattle raising, and all lived together in a large house on a quarter section of the ranch, which had been homesteaded by George D. Harvey. In 1901 the plaintiff was employed as a domestic in the Harvey household, and during the time of her service an intimacy sprang up between her and George D. Harvey, which resulted in furnishing plaintiff with "a child for her cradle before she had a husband for her bed." Some time after the birth of the child, plaintiff instituted a bastardy proceeding against George D. Harvey, and in compromise of this proceeding George D. Harvey agreed to and did marry plaintiff, and took her and the child to live with the family on the Harvey Ranch. Plaintiff, prior to her marriage, had made a homestead entry on a quarter section of land about three miles from the Harvey Ranch, on which a sod house had been erected, containing little or no furniture or other conveniences of life. The evidence shows that immediately on the arrival of the plaintiff at the Harvey Ranch, defendant Arthur P. Harvey, her brother-in-law, began a well-directed effort to drive plaintiff from the household and to separate her from his brother. On numerous occasions he applied all kinds of vile epithets to her in the presence of the family, and told neighbors that they intended "to make it so hot for her that she would have to leave." There was also evidence tending to show that the mother-in-law, Mrs. Harvey, cooperated to some extent in the design of her codefendant, Arthur P. Harvey, but there is practically no evidence in the record that the father, William H. Harvey, concerted with the other defendants in the matter of bringing about the separation of plaintiff and her husband. After about three weeks of her residence on the Harvey Ranch plaintiff, as she alleges, because of her ill treatment, agreed to leave the ranch and go back and live on her homestead, if her husband would come and stay with her there at nights. With this understanding, she went to the sod house on her homestead with her husband, who left her a very scanty provision of food, and took her to a neighbor's and got permission for her to stay all night, and promised to come the next night to stay with her on the homestead. She returned to her homestead next morning, but the husband remained at home, and abandoned his wife and child, and left her with her offspring in much the same condition as Abraham of old is said to have left his handmaiden Hagar and her child, when he parted from them in the wilderness. At the close of the testimony, defendants all joined...