Morris v. Morris

• Decision Date: 11 March 1963
• Docket Number: No. 2,No. 1,1,2
• Citation: 18 A.D.2d 1007,238 N.Y.S.2d 568
• Parties: Elizabeth Woollard MORRIS, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Ernest B. MORRIS, Edward G. Dillon and Barbara C. Morris, etc., Defendants-Appellants. (Action) Ernest B. MORRIS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Elizabeth Woollard MORRIS, Defendant-Respondent, and Humble Oil and Refining Company, Defendant. (Action)
• Court: New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division

Page 568

238 N.Y.S.2d 568

18 A.D.2d 1007

Elizabeth Woollard MORRIS, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Ernest B. MORRIS, Edward G. Dillon and Barbara C. Morris,

etc., Defendants-Appellants.

(Action No. 1)

Ernest B. MORRIS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Elizabeth Woollard MORRIS, Defendant-Respondent, and Humble

Oil and Refining Company, Defendant.

(Action No. 2)

Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Second Department.

March 11, 1963.

N. LeVan Haver, Kingston, for E. B. Morris, in Action No. 1.

Wood, Morris, Sanford & Hatt, Albany, for E. B. Morris in Action No. 2 and B. C. Morris (Middaugh) in Action No. 1; John R. Davison, Albany, of counsel.

John R. Davison, Albany, for appellant Dillon.

Murphy, Aldrich, Guy, Broderick & Simon, Troy for respondent Elizabeth W. Morris; Morris Simon, Troy of counsel.

Before BELDOCK, P. J., and UGHETTA, BRENNAN, HILL and RABIN, JJ.

MEMORANDUM BY THE COURT.

In an action designated as Action No. 1, by the plaintiff Elizabeth Woollard Morris: (a) to set aside a separation agreement between her and the defendant Ernest B. Morris; (b) to annul his subsequent marriage to the defendant Barbara C. Morris [Middaugh]; (c) to declare plaintiff to be his lawful wife; (d) to obtain a judicial separation from him; and (e) to recover damages of four million dollars allegedly sustained by plaintiff by reason of his alleged tortious conduct in concert with the defendant Edward G. Dillon in the procurement of the separation agreement and a Mexican divorce decree against the plaintiff; and in an action designated as Action No. 2, by the said Ernest B. Morris against the said Elizabeth Woollard Morris for partition of their two parcels of real property (in which Humble Oil and Refining Company, a lessee of one of the parcels, is joined as a defendant), the said Ernest B. Morris, Barbara C. Morris and Edward G. Dillon, as defendants in Action No. 1, and the said Ernest B. Morris, as the plaintiff in Action No. 2, appeal from so much of an order of the Supreme Court, Columbia County, dated November 8, 1962 and entered November 14, 1962 in Albany County, as, upon reargument, granted the motion of said Elizabeth Woollard Morris to the extent of directing: (1) that the two actions be tried jointly; and (2) that upon such joint trial the ninety-four framed issues set forth in said order be submitted to a jury 'before any other issues raised by the pleadings' in both said actions.

By order dated November 27, 1962, the Appellate Division, Third Department, has transferred the appeal to this court for disposition (...