Skelton v. Skelton, 41124

• Decision Date: 27 April 1959
• Docket Number: No. 41124,41124
• Parties: Mrs. Adelle M. J. SKELTON v. Richard Curry SKELTON, Jr.
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

Page 392

111 So.2d 392

236 Miss. 598

Mrs. Adelle M. J. SKELTON v. Richard Curry SKELTON, Jr.

No. 41124.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

April 27, 1959.

Ebb J. Ford, Jr., Gulfport, for appellant.

English Lindsey, Gulfport, Floyd & Holleman, Gulfport & Wiggins, for appellee.

McGEHEE, Chief Justice.

This appeal presents for decision two questions. First, whether the Chancery Court of Harrison County, Mississippi, had jurisdiction of the subject matter and territorial jurisdiction of the parties and second, whether or not the appellee, Richard Curry Skelton, Jr., made sufficient proof to entitle him to the decree of divorce granted by the trial court on the sole issue of whether or not the appellant, Mrs. Adelle M. J. Skelton, had been guilty of habitual cruel and inhuman treatment of him within the meanings of that term as defined by the former decisions of this Court.

The appellee was born in Key West, Florida, and he graduated from high school there. At an early age he enlisted in the Naval Coast Guard. In 1946 his parents moved from Key West, Florida, to a place on Jones Street in the City of Gulfport, Mississippi. The appellee made the downpayment on the purchase of their home there and paid $25 per month thereafter on the purchase price thereof for a period of six years.

At the time of the filing of the instant suit on October 19, 1957, the appellee had not resided in the State of Florida since August 6, 1956. Shortly before he left Key West, Florida, he and the appellant had separated and he had carried her and their adopted son, who was her natural child by a former marriage, to the home of her parents at Islamorado, Florida. They had been renting a furnished apartment at Key West, Florida. After their separation the appellee was assigned to the coast guard cutter Matagorda at Honolulu, Hawaii, and he was located there at the time he signed and swore to the bill of complaint in this cause.

The proof shows that prior to this last enlistment in the coast guard the appellee had spent his leaves with his parents at Gulfport, Mississippi; that he had been formerly registered for the selective draft service with the local draft board at Gulfport; that he had worked part of the time between one enlistment and another as an employee of the Mississippi State Highway Commission at Gulfport; and that when he registered for the enlistment which resulted in his being assigned to Honolulu, Hawaii, he went from Gulfport to the City of New Orleans, Louisiana, for enlistment since that was the nearest naval base at which he could enlist for coast guard service and gave Jones Street, Gulfport, Mississippi, as his address and place of residence. He testified that it has been his intention all the while that upon retirement from the coast guard service he will return to Gulfport to live. We have concluded that since the appellee had been away from Florida since August 6, 1956 and was entitled to select a domicile and place of residence somewhere, and has never been a registered and qualified elector anywhere we are unable to say that the trial court was manifestly wrong in retaining jurisdiction of this suit for divorce.

As to the allegations of habitual cruel and inhuman treatment of the appellee by the appellant, the proof discloses that his primary complaint was that she drank beer to such an extent that she gained from 165 pounds to approximately 200 or 210 pounds, but that the appellee purchased a lot of this beer for her by the case at the coast guard base, and he admitted that he participated in drinking the beer but to a less extent than she did. Moreover, the record shows that the father of the appellee drank beer with both the appellant and the appellee, which beer had been purchased at the place aforesaid.

As to the appellant's having gained in weight from 165 pounds to approximately 200 pounds, it...