Sonneman v. Atkinson
| Decision Date | 23 October 1931 |
| Docket Number | 27880 |
| Citation | 238 N.W. 532,121 Neb. 752 |
| Parties | WILLIAM SONNEMAN, APPELLEE, v. BURFORD J. ATKINSON, APPELLANT |
| Court | Nebraska Supreme Court |
APPEAL from the district court for Lincoln county: J. LEONARD TEWELL, JUDGE. Affirmed.
AFFIRMED.
Syllabus by the Court.
In an action by a husband for damages for alienation of the affections of his wife, the defendant can be held responsible only for that loss of consortium of which his acts were the controlling cause.
" Where instructions to the jury are requested and refused, but the instructions given by the court on its own motion had the same effect as those refused, error does not result therefrom." Payne v. Clark, 117 Neb. 238, 220 N.W. 262.
" Argument of counsel, based on matters not in evidence, will not be reviewed, if made in reply to similar argument of adverse counsel." Nebraska Savings & Exchange Bank v. Brewster, 59 Neb. 535 , 81 N.W. 441, 442.
Additional Syllabus by Editorial Staff.
$15,000 to husband for alienation of wife's affections held not excessive in view of surrounding facts and circumstances.
Appeal from District Court, Lincoln County; Tewell, Judge.
Action by William Sonneman against Burford J. Atkinson. Judgment for the plaintiff, and the defendant appeals.
Affirmed.
O. E. Bozarth and Beeler, Crosby & Baskins, for appellant.
George N. Gibbs, William E. Shuman and Halligan, Beatty & Halligan, contra.
Heard before GOSS, C. J., DEAN, EBERLY and PAINE, JJ., and BLACKLEDGE, District Judge.
Plaintiff sued defendant for damages for alienating the affections of plaintiff's wife. The jury returned a verdict for $ 20,000. Plaintiff remitted the excess over $ 15,000 and the court entered judgment for the latter sum. Defendant appealed.
William Sonneman, 23, and Artie Duckworth, 18, were married in North Platte on December 23, 1916. They had two children, a son, born February 24, 1920, and a daughter, born July 5, 1922. Until May 19, 1927, they lived together on rented farms in Lincoln county. In March of that year they had moved to a farm owned by defendant, who had several thousand acres contiguous to the house in which plaintiff and his family lived. He spent much time there looking after his interests. While there he boarded with the Sonnemans. He was married and knew plaintiff and wife were married. There was evidence from which the jury might infer that his attitude toward plaintiff's wife was not entirely Platonic and that it was not repulsive to her. It should be said, however, that both of them deny any wrongdoing, and the wife, particularly, accounted for plaintiff's conclusions by testifying to his unreasonable suspicion of her and his unfounded jealousy of other men. Events occurring later in the season probably had more to do in bringing about the verdict of the jury.
On May 19, 1927, Mrs. Sonneman left for Iowa with her two children to visit her sisters. Her husband bought the tickets and put his family on the train. She had sold her chickens for $ 27 and he had borrowed $ 30 from Atkinson to provide money for the trip. He testified that he kissed her good-bye. She says he tried to kiss her but she dodged him. She did not intend to return to him and says she so advised him before she left. He testified he was willing she should go on the trip; that she had not informed him she did not intend to return and he understood she was to stay only until about harvest time. She remained in Iowa about five weeks and then went to Omaha with her children, where for some weeks, beginning on June 23 or 24, 1927, she and her children lived in a so-called "apartment" at 212 North 25th street. They occupied two rooms in a story and basement duplex house of eight rooms, owned by one Altman, who lived in the other duplex and conducted a grocery store nearby. The furniture had belonged to a Mrs. Atherton who was a lessee of the duplex. The sale of the furniture for $ 250 was negotiated on June 23, 1927, by a real estate broker to one Buckley, who came to the office of the broker in company with the defendant and with plaintiff's wife, who was introduced as Mrs. Duckworth. Buckley lived in Omaha and had been a long-time friend of defendant. He died before the trial and his testimony does not appear. About September 28, 1927, when the house was given up by the parties involved in this action, the furniture was sold and conveyed for a consideration of $ 200, as shown by a written agreement between Artie Duckworth, described as the owner, and her purchaser. While plaintiff's wife and children occupied rooms at this place, she was known to the other tenants as their landlady. The rent for the whole house was paid by her and the three other occupants of apartments or rooms paid their rent to her. At the beginning and through much of the time while plaintiff's wife lived there in the summer and early fall of 1927, defendant lived there. At the outset the narrowness of the world was exemplified by the discovery that a man and wife who had lived in North Platte occupied one of the apartments. The man had long known defendant, who, meeting him in the house and being recognized, informed him the young woman was his daughter, whose husband was of no account, and he had bought the place for her, so that he could stay there when he came down to sell his cattle. As soon as this came to her attention, Mrs. Sonneman stated she was Mrs. Duckworth and as such she was known about the place. Witnesses testified to acts of affection between the two while at this place. Plaintiff did not know his wife and children had left Iowa and had gone to Omaha. The facts that both were legally married to other spouses, that they were not father and daughter and were not related at all, that they were surreptitious in their plan of living, and all the circumstances not necessary or desirable to relate here, sufficiently justified the conclusion of the jury that the defendant had designedly alienated the affections of plaintiff's wife. The jury being the triers of fact, we cannot disturb the judgment unless prejudicial error occurred in the trial court.
The court admitted in evidence a...
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