Perguidi v. Perguidi., 203.

• Decision Date: 04 October 1946
• Docket Number: No. 203.,203.
• Parties: PERGUIDI v. PERGUIDI.
• Court: New Jersey Supreme Court

49 A.2d 150

PERGUIDI

v.PERGUIDI.

No. 203.

Court of Errors and Appeals of New Jersey.

Oct. 4, 1946.

Appeal from Court of Chancery.

Suit for divorce by Mary Perguidi against Alfonso Perguidi, on ground of extreme cruelty. From a decree dismissing the petition, the petitioner appeals.

Decree reversed and record remanded for decree for petitioner.

Syllabus by the Court.

Conduct which endangers the health or safety of the injured party either actually inflicted or reasonably apprehended is extreme cruelty within the meaning of our divorce act.

Alfred E. Modarelli, of Union City, for petitioner-appellant.

Victor S. Kilkenny and Otis & Kilkenny, all of West New York, for defendant-respondent.

CASE, Chief Justice.

This is an appeal from a decree entered in the Court of Chancery dismissing petitioner-appellant's petition for divorce on the ground of extreme cruelty.

The parties were married January 28, 1937. Differences arose; there was little forbearance on either side and the domestic situation became critical.

We are persuaded that the husband persistently through the years, at any time, at any place and in any presence, loudly addressed the wife with vile, insulting epithets and with groundless charges of unchastity. He had a violent temper which he made no effort to control. The culmination came on Sunday, December 5, 1943. The wife had taken an afternoon walk and returned to her home at or before six o'clock p. m. The husband greeted her with a degrading epithet and the accusation that she had been out riding with a paramour. Upon her denial he, with knife in hand, adjured her to tell the story of her alleged illicit experience, and upon her continued protestation of innocence he threatened to cut her throat if she didn't get out of the house. The incident developed into the calling of a woman neighbor by the name of Stoffel. Mrs. Stoffel responded to the summons on the night of December 5th, and she appeared at the divorce hearing as a witness for the husband. She testified that on the evening of December 5th the husband was white with rage, that he charged his wife with infidelities and said to her ‘If you don't get out of here tonight you'll be in the hospital,’ that the witness ‘wouldn't put it past’ the defendant to carry out his threat, that the wife was crying and said, ‘I'll go, I'll go, but give me the rest of the money,’ that the husband paid the wife $300 and told her to come for the balance on Monday and that the wife, weeping and without knowing where she was to go, left the house in company with the witness. One Manowitz, who had a money claim against the parties and attended on Monday, December 6th, for the purpose of making the collection, testified that after he had received payment of...