Hunter v. Hunter

• Decision Date: 09 January 1911
• Docket Number: 16,197
• Citation: 129 N.W. 422,88 Neb. 153
• Parties: MARY HUNTER, APPELLEE, v. HENRY C. HUNTER, APPELLANT
• Court: Nebraska Supreme Court

129 N.W. 422

88 Neb. 153

MARY HUNTER, APPELLEE, v. HENRY C. HUNTER, APPELLANT

No. 16,197

Supreme Court of Nebraska

January 9, 1911

APPEAL from the district court for Sioux county: JAMES J HARRINGTON, JUDGE. Affirmed in part and reversed in part. Action for divorce dismissed.

Decree affirmed. Action for divorce dismissed. Judgment for wages reversed and remanded in part.

Justin E. Porter, for appellant.

A. M Morrissey and Allen G. Fisher, contra.

REESE C. J. FAWCETT, J., not sitting.

OPINION

REESE, C. J.

This suit was commenced in the district court for Sioux county. Owing to the contention between counsel as to the nature of the action and the authority of the district court to render the judgment which was entered, we copy the petition in full. It is as follows:

"The plaintiff, for cause of action, alleges that she was born in the Kingdom of Denmark in the year 1864, and in 1886, she came to Sioux county, Nebraska, and met the defendant, then a man of mature years, aged 42; that thereupon the defendant who was then engaged in the ranch business in said county, applied to the plaintiff, who was then a very comely woman, a member of an indigent family, unlettered in the English language, or in the laws or customs of this country, to enter his employ as a domestic servant at the agreed rate of $ 10 a month, and, in addition, there was to be furnished by the defendant sufficient and proper quantities of groceries and materials to prepare their subsistence and other necessary articles of housekeeping and living. And plaintiff alleges that the said contract has never yet been abrogated nor set aside, but, pursuant thereto, the plaintiff entered into the service of the said defendant as such domestic housekeeper, and remained at said house continuously, performing such contracted services thereat until November, 1904. And plaintiff alleges, further, that the defendant never paid her any of the stipulated wages, and has wholly failed from the date hereinafter mentioned, 1887, to furnish any of the necessary groceries or other articles necessary for the said housekeeping and living of the parties thereto; that thereafter, at the premises aforesaid, the defendant proposed marriage to this plaintiff between the parties hereto, and the said proposal was accepted, and, in pursuance thereof, the said defendant represented to the said plaintiff, who was an inexperienced, foreign-born virgin, without experience or knowledge in relation to such matters, that the marriage might be performed by a ceremony before a minister, or by the defendant acknowledging and introducing her under his name as his wife, in either event to be accompanied by cohabitation, and accordingly this plaintiff believed, relied upon as true, and acted upon said representations of defendant, and from that date until November, 1904, the parties hereto have lived together, cohabited together, as man and wife, and each held themselves out as such, and from the date above mentioned the defendant has introduced plaintiff to their neighbors in the community where they have lived and elsewhere as his wife, and caused the fact of their marriage to be published in the newspapers of said county. And the plaintiff alleges that ever since the date of their said marriage the plaintiff has conducted herself toward the defendant as a faithful, chaste and dutiful wife, and, in addition to performing the ordinary housekeeper's duties above described, she has toiled in their fields as a farm hand in plowing, fertilizing, and harvesting their meadows and grain fields, and has herded, and pastured, and fed and watered, and harnessed and unharnessed their herds and horses in summer, and even in winter during the periods of sickness and the attacks of drunkenness hereinafter related. And plaintiff alleges that she has raised poultry and garden, and made butter and marketed the produce, and thereby provided their living and much of the household goods necessary continuously during their married life, without any help from defendant.

"And plaintiff alleges that during all their married life, the said defendant was habitually accustomed to the drinking of intoxicating liquors, and frequent intoxication. And plaintiff alleges, further, that plaintiff (defendant) always has been of poor judgment in matters of business, and been habitually a spendthrift, and that within the last year the said defendant has become very reckless and has squandered, and yet is squandering, in dissipation large sums of money, and continues still to do this; that he has converted a considerable portion of his property into houses which he lets for the purposes of prostitution, which places he frequents constantly; that he has conveyed without any honest consideration thereof a large house used as a place of prostitution, which has cost in the neighborhood of $ 3,000, to one Mercedes Goodwin, alias Madam Grant, a colored prostitute, and with her associates in the management of said business, together with gambling there carried on, and he has committed adultery there with the said colored woman; that, by reason of his so consorting with these lewd people, the plaintiff fears for her own health, if she shall longer cohabit with the defendant as his wife.

"Plaintiff alleges, further, that she has but small means in live stock and real estate of her own earning and saving of the possible value of $ 1,000, and that the defendant owns property consisting of real estate in Crawford, Nebraska, and of money deposited in the First National Bank, and of money due him from various residents of Dawes county, Nebraska, and of real estate and money loaned in Kern county, California, of the fair cash value of at least $ 70,000, and that defendant has threatened to convert all the said property in Dawes county into cash, and to remove it himself from said state.

"And plaintiff alleges, further, that there are no fruits of their said marriage.

"The plaintiff therefore prays judgment that the defendant pending this suit, be enjoined and restrained from converting into money or movable property, and removing the same from Nebraska, the property therein situated; that on the final hearing the injunction be made perpetual. Plaintiff prays, further, that she be...