Sapos v. Plame, 6 Div. 597

• Decision Date: 30 March 1961
• Docket Number: 6 Div. 597
• Citation: 272 Ala. 76,128 So.2d 524
• Parties: Harriett Jetta SAPOS v. Samuel PLAME, Jr.
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

Page 524

128 So.2d 524

272 Ala. 76

Harriett Jetta SAPOS v. Samuel PLAME, Jr.

6 Div. 597.

Supreme Court of Alabama.

March 30, 1961.

Rankin Fite, Hamilton, for appellant.

Bill Fite, Hamilton, for appellee.

LAWSON, Justice.

The appeal is from a decree overruling demurrer to an amended bill which seeks the vacation of a decree of divorce. The original bill was filed on July 21, 1959.

The case made by the amended bill is substantially as follows.

The complainant, Samuel Plame, Jr., and the respondent, Harriett Jetta Sapos, were married in November, 1944. The Circuit Court of Marion County, in Equity, on May 19, 1958, rendered a decree purporting to dissolve that marriage in a proceeding instituted by Harriett Jetta Plame, now Harriett Jetta Sapos, against Samuel Plame, Jr.

The decree of May 19, 1958, was obtained by fraud, in that:

'* * * Defendant obtained Complainant's signature to a purported Answer and Waiver used in such divorce proceeding by fraud and misrepresentation practiced by Defendant on Complainant. * * * The said purported Answer and Waiver is not the same instrument that was executed by Complainant and is a forgery. The instrument that Complainant did sign was forged and changed by the Defendant after it was signed by Complainant without the consent or knowledge of the Complainant. In the instrument that Complainant signed he did not submit himself to the jurisdiction of the Circuit Court, In Equity of Marion County, Alabama or to any court in the State of Alabama. Complainant has never appeared in any action filed by the Defendant in the Circuit Court, In Equity of Marion County, Alabama or in any court in the State of Alabama. The purported Answer and Waiver was filed in the Circuit Court, In Equity of Marion County, Alabama without the knowledge or consent of the Complainant and such Answer and Waiver is a forgery. The purported Answer and Waiver was changed and forged by the Defendant so as to confer jurisdiction of the Circuit Court, In Equity of Marion County, Alabama over the Complainant without his knowledge or consent.'

The bill as amended further alleges:

'At the time the decree was rendered in the Circuit Court, In Equity of Marion County, Alabama in said Case #6028 styled Harriett Jetta Plame, Complainant vs. Samuel Plame, Jr., Defendant, the Complainant was serving in the United States Armed Forces overseas in Frankfort, Germany. Complainant did not return to the United States until April 22, 1959, at which time he immediately began trying to get the said divorce decree set aside.'

There are only two assignments of error, both of which are to the effect that the court erred in overruling the respondent's demurrer.

Under such assignments, we treat only those grounds of demurrer adequately argued in brief of appellant as having been well taken....