Mailloux v. Mailloux

• Decision Date: 28 July 1983
• Citation: Mailloux v. Mailloux, 463 A.2d 192 (R.I. 1983)
• Parties: Robert J. MAILLOUX v. Jeannette D. MAILLOUX. 80-485-Appeal.
• Court: Rhode Island Supreme Court

Page 192

463 A.2d 192

Robert J. MAILLOUX v.Jeannette D. MAILLOUX.

80-485-Appeal.

Supreme Court of Rhode Island.

July 28, 1983.

Leonard A. Kamaras, Providence, for plaintiff.

John F. McBurney, Pawtucket, for defendant.

OPINION

KELLEHER, Justice.

The parties were formerly husband and wife.The husband is before us on his appeal from a March 16, 1979 decree of the Family Court in which the trial justice, after hearing evidence over an extended period, denied the husband's petition for an absolute divorce, granted the wife's petition, and made a number of ancillary orders relating to a variety of matters, including the award of alimony, the continuance of real-estate mortgage payments, and the partition of the couple's real estate.

The husband's appeal relates to two issues.He faults the trial justice for permitting the wife's attorney to recall to the witness stand the husband's sister and for permitting the couple's son, a member of the Massachusetts bar, to be seated at counsel table alongside his mother's counsel and to be present at in-chambers conferences.The real point of contention at the trial involved the ownership of a business located on Mendon Road in Woonsocket and known as Holley Mineral Spring Water Company.This company was once owned by the husband's father, the late J.C. Mailloux.

On February 22, 1979, Priscilla Reynolds, the husband's sister who appeared as a witness for her sister-in-law, was asked whether J.C. Mailloux ever discussed with her the water company and whom he wished to "leave it to."In response, the witness said that he had expressed the wish that the water company "would go to my brother Bob with the assistance of his wife because she would take care of the books."There was some suggestion in cross-examination that the witness's mother and father might have sold the business in the early sixties for a dollar to her brother Robert, the husband here.

Four days later, on February 26, 1979, the wife's attorney asked permission to recall Priscilla to the stand, pointing out that Priscilla had come across certain records that she had been unable to find at the time of her prior court appearance.In her second appearance on the witness stand, Priscilla told the trial justice that when the business was transferred to the husband and his wife in April 1965, she had set up a bookkeeping system so that Jeannette would take care of the bookkeeping and Robert would do "the hard work."The witness also explained to the trial justice that her parents had told her that they considered Jeannette a daughter, not a daughter-in-law, and the parents believed that her brother could not operate the business ¹ without the "strength" of Jeannette.

A trial...