Smoak v. Smoak

• Decision Date: 31 August 1977
• Docket Number: No. 20503,20503
• Citation: 237 S.E.2d 372,269 S.C. 313
• Court: South Carolina Supreme Court
• Parties: Joette R. SMOAK, Appellant, v. Gerald C. SMOAK, Respondent.

Page 372

237 S.E.2d 372

269 S.C. 313

Joette R. SMOAK, Appellant, v. Gerald C. SMOAK, Respondent.

No. 20503.

Supreme Court of South Carolina.

Aug. 31, 1977.

I. A. Smoak, Jr. of Smoak & Smoak, Walterboro, for appellant.

Morris D. Rosen, Charleston, for respondent.

LITTLEJOHN, Justice:

This action was commenced by the plaintiff-appellant (wife) against the defendant-respondent (husband) on March 13, 1972, for legal separation, alimony, child custody and support, use of home and other properties, and attorney's fees. On April 29, 1972, a consent order for payments pendente lite was entered. Thereafter, an answer to the complaint was filed, denying the material allegations and pleading § 10-605, Code of Laws of South Carolina (1962), so that the verification did not apply to the desertion and adultery allegations of the complaint. ¹

This cause of action remained substantially dormant until the husband commenced a separate action in 1975 against the wife in the Civil and Criminal Court of Colleton County for a complete divorce on the "no fault" ground of three years continuous separation, under Code § 20-101(5). The divorce was granted and no appeal was taken.

The divorce action did not terminate this action, and there remained for adjudication the wife's entitlement to alimony, custody and support for the children, her claim to possession of the residence she occupied, and attorney's fees.

On October 13, 1975, the husband filed an amended answer alleging, as a bar to her right to alimony, that the wife, since 1971, had probably committed adultery with three named men.

A referee took the testimony and reported it to the judge without recommendation.

After a hearing, the judge granted the wife custody and support for the children and use of the home until the youngest reaches the age of 18, but found her guilty of adultery and denied her alimony and all rights in the husband's property. The wife has appealed.

The facts are not greatly in dispute. This couple was married in 1954 and lived and cohabitated together as husband and wife in Walterboro until about October 6, 1971. To the marriage was born Debra Jean, now about 21, Gerald, Jr., now about 18, and Phyllis Renee, now about 17.

The husband is a prosperous lawyer in Walterboro. Prior to October, 1971, he became infatuated with and developed an adulterous relation with Nancy Thomas. The relationship was little, if at all, concealed, and resulted in the desertion of the wife and children on or about October 6, 1971.

Thereafter, on February 18, 1972, the husband procured a decree of divorce in the Civil Court of Port-au-Prince, Republic of Haiti. Several weeks later, he presented the wife an authenticated copy of the decree. In truth the divorce was invalid.

After the date of the Haitian decree, he posed as an unmarried man. On the following dates he executed deeds and/or mortgages, without dower renunciation, reciting that he was an unmarried man: March 7, 1973 (2 mortgages), May 25, 1973, August 1, 1973, August 16, 1974, December 9, 1974, December 27, 1974 (2 deeds), April 1, 1975, and April 3, 1975. In so doing, he relied upon the Haitian divorce to his own property right advantage, securing loans for the mortgages and payments for the deeds. It was also to the detriment of the potential property rights of the wife. Certainly, it ignored her dower interests.

On August 14, 1974, he executed an agreement with a country club, reciting that he was married to "Nancy Smoak." On the same date he executed a swim program card, reciting that the participating family members were himself, Nancy, and her two children, Roger and Susan.

Over an extended time, he and Nancy resided together in an adjoining county, holding themselves out to the public as a married couple. We think it a fair appraisal to say that the relationship would have ripened into a common law marriage except for the fact that he was not divorced and could not legally enter into a common law or a statutory marriage.

The no-fault divorce was granted on June 11, 1975. The husband married again two days later. He and his new wife now reside in Walterboro, where for about 20 years he has maintained his law office.

Before the referee, the court below, and this court, the husband concedes that by reason of his conduct, the wife is entitled to alimony unless she, herself is disqualified from receiving such by reason of adultery. There is no contention that her conduct contributed to the disruption of the marital relationship. The lower court held that "the conduct of which the (husband) complains occurred after the Decree of the Court of the Republic of Haiti." Our statute ² provides that . . . "no alimony shall be granted to an adulterous wife."

During the taking of the testimony, the wife admitted associations with other men after the Haitian divorce, but denied any adultery. She refused to answer some questions concerning her travels, pleading the Fifth Amendment, thereby denying to the husband the opportunity to develop all the facts incident to the associations. The wife's contention is set out in her brief as follows:

"It is the Plaintiff's position that Defendant, having deserted her in October, 1971, without just cause, excuse or provocation; having instituted in the Civil Court of Port-au-Prince in the Republic of Haiti an action for divorce from Plaintiff and knowingly sought and invoked the jurisdiction of that Court, submitted himself thereto and obtained therefrom a Decree of Divorce on February 18, 1972; and thereafter and for a period of more than three (3) years having asserted and affirmed the validity of such divorce as manifested in the several designated transactions, and having further affirmed the validity thereof, in August, 1974, by cohabiting with and holding himself out as the husband of one Nancy Smoak, is estopped by judgment, record and conduct to assert the invalidity of such foreign divorce; to assert, notwithstanding such foreign divorce and his several acts in affirmation of the validity thereof, including his marriage, either real or pretended, to Nancy, that Plaintiff thereafter remained his wife; and to assert any act or conduct on the part of the Plaintiff as a bar to her claim for alimony alleged to have occurred subsequent to the date of the entry of the foreign divorce decree."

The husband also plead the Fifth Amendment to several questions, thereby denying to the wife the opportunity to develop all of the facts. It is the husband's contention that he need not answer inasmuch as he has admitted his guilt.

The lower court discarded the wife's contention that the husband was estopped to assert the validity of the Haitian divorce decree. He held that the wife was guilty of adultery after the Haitian decree. (There was no contention of adultery prior thereto.) The judge fortified his ruling by relying upon a body of law to the effect that a plaintiff who invokes the Fifth Amendment privilege may not prevail citing 4 A.L.R.3d 539, and Stockham v. Stockham, Fla., 168 So.2d 320 (1964).

The wife has interposed several exceptions, raising six questions as set out in her brief, but we think...