State v. Gunzler

• Decision Date: 31 March 1873
• Citation: 52 Mo. 172
• Parties: STATE OF MISSOURI, Respondent v. CHARLES GUNZLER, Appellant.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

52 Mo. 172

STATE OF MISSOURI, Respondent

v.CHARLES GUNZLER, Appellant.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

March Term, 1873.

Appeal from St. Louis Court of Criminal Correction.

Gottschalk, for Appellant.

I. The judgment was contrary to the evidence, because it appeared there was a divorce suit pending at the time wherein the prosecutrix was the defendant and had the right to apply for alimony “pendente lite.”

II. The filing of a divorce suit, coupled with the fact of acting under the advice of counsel, is a sufficient excuse for abandonment of wife.

EWING, Judge, delivered the opinion of the court.

This was a prosecution against the defendant, Gunzler, for abandoning his wife, and neglecting to maintain and provide for her. The defendant was found guilty and his fine assessed at fifty dollars. A motion for a new trial being overruled, he brings the cause to this court by appeal.

No question of law is presented by the record, and the only ground on which a reversal of the judgment is asked, is that there is no evidence to sustain the finding of the court.

The complaint charges, that defendant on the 5th day o December, 1871, and continually from and after that day until the day of the filing of the complaint, to-wit: Dec. 18th 1871, unlawfully and without good cause did abandon his lawful wife, &c., and during the time aforesaid unlawfully and without good cause did fail and refuse to maintain and provide for her.

The evidence introduced on the part of the State, tended to prove that defendant's wife lived with him in St. Louis as his wife until Dec. 5th, 1871, when defendant left her, and has been absent ever since; that defendant, who is a rag-gatherer took with him certain property consisting of a horse and wagon; that he had not furnished anything whatever since that time; that she, the wife, went to his home which is only a few blocks from where she lived for the purpose of getting assistance; but was unable to see him; that she has no means of support except her own labor and such assistance as can be furnished by two sons by a former husband, aged respectively thirteen and eleven.

Defendant introduced in evidence the record in the case of the defendant against his wife, a suit for divorce, filed in the St. Louis Circuit Court, Dec. 5th, 1871, and served by the theriff on defendant Dec. 19th, 1871, returnable to the February Term, 1872 of said court, and then still pending therein, on the ground of indignities such as to render plaintiff's condition...