Rainey v. Rainey
| Decision Date | 26 February 1937 |
| Docket Number | No. 7665.,7665. |
| Citation | 190 A. 27 |
| Parties | RAINEY v. RAINEY. |
| Court | Rhode Island Supreme Court |
Exceptions from Superior Court, Providence and Bristol Counties; Alexander L. Churchill, Judge.
Petition by Eva Rainey against Richard Rainey. To review a decision granting a divorce to petitioner, respondent brings exception.
Exception overruled, and case remitted.
William M. Connell, of Pawtucket, for petitioner.
William A. Gunning, of Providence, for respondent.
This case is before us on the respondent's exception to a decision of the superior court granting a divorce to the petitioner on the ground of gross misbehavior. The respondent claims that this decision is erroneous.
The trial justice found that the respondent had deserted his wife for a period of at least three years, during all of which time he had continuously associated with another woman in spite of every effort by his wife to have him discontinue that association; that he inadequately supported his wife; and that during this entire time he pursued an intentional course of conduct "with the idea of inflicting harm on his wife by so doing."
The testimony shows that the parties have two adult children, while the other woman lives with her husband and two children, well along towards their majority. This woman and her husband testified for the respondent. We do not deem it necessary or expedient to refer to the testimony, other than to say that, in consequence of the respondent's inconsiderate conduct and abusive treatment, the wife's health was impaired to the extent of her requiring medical attention for almost three years.
There is ample evidence in this case to have justified the trial justice in granting the petition on the ground of extreme cruelty. Grant v. Grant, 44 R.I. 169, 116 A. 481. But he based his decision on the ground of gross misbehavior. G.L.1923, c. 291, § 2. In Stevens v. Stevens, 8 R.I. 557, this court held that the general clause of the statute providing for divorces "for 'gross misbehavior and wickedness, repugnant to and inconsistent with the marriage contract'" should be interpreted in the light of the preceding enumerated grounds for divorce; and that to make the conduct of a respondent a ground for divorce under this general clause, such conduct should have some character of licentiousness or brutality allying it in its moral attributes with adultery or extreme cruelty. Walker v. Walker, 38 R.I. 362, 95 A. 925.
In the case at bar the trial...
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Jackson v. Jackson .
...under the statute has been described in Stevens v. Stevens, 8 R.I. 557, Walker v. Walker, 38 R.I. 362, 95 A. 925, and Rainey v. Rainey, 57 R.I. 426, 190 A. 27. In those cases this court has held that this statutory ground contemplated that the conduct complained of must have some character ......
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Santos v. Santos
...or brutality allying it in its moral attributes with adultery or extreme cruelty. Walker v. Walker, 38 R.I. 362, 95 A. 925; Rainey v. Rainey, 57 R.I. 426, 190 A. 27. Therefore assuming, as did the trial justice, that this ground under the statute conceivably may contemplate the kind of cond......