Randle v. Randle

Decision Date24 February 1944
Docket NumberNo. 11615.,11615.
Citation178 S.W.2d 570
PartiesRANDLE v. RANDLE.
CourtTexas Court of Appeals

Appeal from District Court, Galveston County; C. G. Dibrell, Judge.

Action by Fred Randle against Martha D. Randle for divorce on ground of abandonment. From a judgment granting plaintiff a divorce, defendant appeals.

Reversed and cause dismissed.

Charles H. Mayer, of Houston, for appellant.

Henry Greenberg, of Galveston, for appellee.

GRAVES, Justice.

This is a divorce suit. Fred Randle, a soldier in the United States Army, while stationed at Camp Wallace in Galveston County, Texas, as plaintiff, brought it against his wife, Martha D. Randle, as defendant, for a divorce on the ground, among other things, of her alleged three years abandonment of him as her husband.

The case was tried before the court, without a jury, and judgment—on the sole ground of the abandonment—was rendered in favor of plaintiff, granting him a divorce with custody of their minor child to her, from which defendant gave due notice of appeal.

The appeal comes here upon a single question of law, the agreed facts giving rise to it being, in his verbis, these:

"Appellant's (defendant Martha D. Randle's) contention in the trial court, and her sole proposition on this trial, is that appellee (Fred Randle) has not been an actual resident of Galveston County for six months immediately next preceding the filing of his suit for divorce, as contemplated by the statutes and decisions as to what constitutes residence in a divorce suit, and on this question it is agreed that the following facts are undisputed:

"That Fred Randle was born and reared in Washington County, Texas; that he and Martha were married at Brenham, Texas, on the 12th day of October, 1935, and lived together as man and wife at Brenham until on or about the 22nd day of April, 1937, at which time Martha left Fred and went to live with a sister in Houston, Texas; that Fred continued to reside in Washington County until the year 1939, when he moved to Fort Worth, Tarrant County, Texas, with the intent of making said city and county his residence; that he remained in Fort Worth, Tarrant County, Texas until on or about the 3rd day of December, 1941, when he was inducted into the U. S. Army, under the Selective Training and Service Act, 50 U.S.C.A. Appendix, § 301 et seq.; that at all times while living in Tarrant County he claimed said county as his residence and paid his poll tax in said county; that he registered in Tarrant County, under the Selective Service Act, and claimed said county as his residence; that after being inducted into the U. S. Army from Tarrant County on the 3rd day of December, 1941, he was ordered to Camp Wolters, Mineral Wells, Texas, where he stayed until about the 7th day of January, 1942, on which latter date he was ordered to Camp Wallace in Galveston County, Texas, where he was stationed at the time of the filing of this suit on March 24, 1943. On the 28th day of March, 1943, he was ordered to Camp Swift near Bastrop, Texas, at which camp he still remains.

"While stationed at Camp Wallace, in Galveston County, Texas, from the 7th day of January, 1942, until the 28th day of March, 1943, he had no other home than Camp Wallace; that the only times that he slept or ate away from Camp Wallace during this period was on occasional brief furloughs when he would come to Galveston, or go to Houston. When in Galveston overnight on such furloughs he would rent a room. While in Houston on such furloughs he would stay at his aunt's house.

"Fred Randle's stay in Galveston County was occasioned solely by orders of the U.S. Army. He at no time formed an intention of making Galveston County his legal residence. He testified that it is now, and at all times has been, his intention, when discharged from the Army, to return to Fort Worth, Tarrant County."

Appellant, upon the facts thus established, presents this single proposition:

"The court erred in granting a divorce to appellee, for the reason that the evidence conclusively showed that at the time he entered the United States Army, he was a resident, actually as well as legally, of Tarrant County, Texas, and that he was ordered to Galveston County by the military authorities; that at all times after arriving in Galveston County, except some week-ends, he was stationed at Camp Wallace, a government military reservation, and that at no time did appellee indicate—by intention or acts—making Galveston County his place of residence, but did testify that he was in Galveston County only because he was ordered there, and that it was his intention to return to Tarrant County, upon his discharge from the United States Army."

The appellee, in his brief, differs with the appellant only in his insistence that she "had not correctly stated the point on which this appeal is predicated", which, as he views it, "is the correct interpretation of that...

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4 cases
  • Spires v. Spires
    • United States
    • Ohio Court of Common Pleas
    • March 8, 1966
    ...domicil there, but was merely present on temporary military assignment. Mohr v. Mohr, 206 Ark. 1094, 178 S.W.2d 502; Randle v. Randle, Tex.Civ.App., 178 S.W.2d 570; Wells v. Wells, Tex.Civ.App., 177 S.W.2d 348; Marshall v. Marshall, 130 Conn. 655, 36 A.2d 743; Gates v. Gates, 197 Ga. 11, 28......
  • Wilson v. Wilson
    • United States
    • Texas Court of Appeals
    • June 22, 1945
    ...175 S.W.2d 704; Pettaway v. Pettaway, 177 S.W.2d 285; Struble v. Struble, 177 S.W.2d 279; Wells v. Wells, 177 S.W.2d 348; Randle v. Randle, 178 S.W.2d 570; Perry v. Perry, 181 S.W.2d 133; and Kilian v. Kilian, 185 S.W.2d 611, all being decisions of Courts of Civil Appeals. In a recent case ......
  • Grimes v. McFarland, 14-02-00875-CV.
    • United States
    • Texas Court of Appeals
    • August 5, 2003
    ...presence in a county, accompanied by good faith intent to remain permanently and definitely make that county one's home. Randle v. Randle, 178 S.W.2d 570, 572 (Tex. Civ. App.—Galveston 1944, no writ); see also Vickery v. Comm'n for Lawyer Discipline, 5 S.W.3d 241, 262 (Tex. App.—Houston [14......
  • Marriage of Earin, In re, 16448
    • United States
    • Texas Court of Appeals
    • February 27, 1975
    ...v . Leeder, 442 S.W.2d 908 (Tex.Civ.App.1969, no writ) and Commercial Credit Corp. v. Smith, 143 Tex. 612, 187 S.W.2d 363. Randle v. Randle, 178 S.W.2d 570, 572 (Tex.Civ.App.1944, no writ), was a suit in which the plaintiff testified that he intended to go back to Tarrant County to live as ......

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