Markland v. Markland

• Decision Date: 20 February 1945
• Parties: MARKLAND v. MARKLAND.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

21 So.2d 145

155 Fla. 629

MARKLAND v. MARKLAND.

Florida Supreme Court

February 20, 1945

Rehearing Denied March 23, 1945.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Broward County; George W Tedder, judge.

McCune Hiaasen & Fleming and C. N. McCune, all of Fort Lauderdale, for appellant.

Saunders & Patterson and R. R. Saunders, all of Fort Lauderdale for appellee.

THOMAS, Justice.

The appellant sued the appellee for divorce, upon three grounds, and sought besides a special equity in his property and a judgment against him for $15,000, the payment by him of costs, attorneys' fees, and alimony. The chancellor granted the divorce, on one ground, and entered the judgment, but denied the claims for special equity, alimony, fees, and costs.

At the outset, and with little comment, we shall dispose of the last of five questions presented by the appellant. She insists that the chancellor should have based the decree on all three grounds alleged instead of only one. No occasion occurs to us, and no reason has been shown, for ascertaining from 1,000 pages of testimony whether she suffered any injustice because a decree found her husband guility of but one of the three varieties of misconduct charged. That part of the decree severing the marriage tie is not challenged by either party and, as it was entered at her instance, we are at a loss to understand how it could have availed her more had it been predicated upon more than one statutory cause for divorce.

We revert to the first question, which deals with a so-called special equity. It is asserted that appellant was entitled to an interest in such property as the husband now owns because the accumulation of the property was made possible by her contributions to the expenses of the family, whereby he was enabled, because of relief from his obligations to pay them, to build up an estate, a situation arising, so appellant contends, pursuant to an understanding between them. Appellant introduces her argument with a reference to our opinion in Collins v. Collins, 153 Fla. 10, 13 So.2d 445. In the cited case we found that upon the facts the chancellor had committed no impropriety in his determination of the claims to a joint account when he awarded the wife more than she had actually deposited in cash. There were taken into consideration her contribution to the marriage enterprise in services, her frugality, and the use of her individual property. We recognized the principle that a wife's contribution toward the success of the union need not necessarily be made in cash and that in case of divorce she should not be deprived of her share of the money or physical property garnered during the marriage simply because she had produced no money, but had only performed the duties of housewife. The facts, which may be learned from a perusal of the opinion, are easily distinguishable from the ones developed in this case. In the instant case the appellee-husband concededly started 'with nothing at their marriage in 1912.' He was a bank clerk earning $150 a month, while she was the daughter of a well-to-do father who continued her allowance after the wedding. He, the husband, because of the expense of the household they were maintaining at the beginning of their career together, found it necessary to seek extra work with firms other than his employer.

After thirty years of married life she is worth more than $230,000; and he, more than $330,000.

It would be a task indeed to undertake any sort of accounting of what each paid during three decades toward the family expenses in order to determine, on this basis, what balance, if any, might exist in her favor. The over-all picture is that of a woman with parents of affluence marrying a man who could not maintain her in the comfort, or luxury, to which she was accustomed. Her manner of living was not adjusted to his meager income, and as a consequence her contribution to the common expense, necessarily augmented by her tastes and her requirements, eventually outweighed his. Even so, because of increasing salary and income as the years passed and his experience grew, he accumulated a modest fortune from his own services and from wise investments. As we shall see, she too prospered.

When the matrimonial venture went upon the reefs of discord, suspicion, and outright misconduct the usual ill feeling and vindictiveness broke in all fury. There came, then, the assertion that through the years she had paid for things it was his obligation to buy; that there had been an understanding that she do so in order that he might build up an estate in which both should ultimately participate; that, as divorce prevented their enjoying together the fruits of their efforts, he should account to her for her part. In presenting the question of the propriety of the chancellor's order in declining this special relief, much time and space have been devoted to conflicts in the testimony, and particularly in that of the appellee, whose integrity has been harshly assailed.

A careful study of the briefs leads us to the conclusion, as it must have the chancellor that there was no such similarity between the circumstances in this case and those in Collins v. Collins, supra, as to justify the claim of special equity in the...