Steed v. Steed

• Decision Date: 02 April 1919
• Docket Number: 3330
• Citation: 181 P. 445,54 Utah 244
• Court: Utah Supreme Court
• Parties: STEED v. STEED

181 P. 445

54 Utah 244

STEED v. STEED

No. 3330

Supreme Court of Utah

April 2, 1919

Rehearing Denied May 14, 1919.

Appeal from District Court, Second District, Davis County; A. E Pratt, Judge.

Action by Ezra v. Steed against Hilda L. Steed. Judgment dismissing the complaint, and plaintiff appeals.

AFFIRMED.

King Braffet & Shulder, of Salt Lake City, for appellant.

Hancock & Barnes, of Salt Lake City, for respondent.

FRICK, J. CORFMAN, C. J., and WEBER, GIDEON, and THURMAN, JJ., concur.

OPINION

FRICK, J.

In April, 1918, plaintiff commenced this action in the district court of Davis county against the defendant to obtain a divorce from her. Two causes of action are stated in the complaint. The second cause of action was, however, abandoned at the trial, and will receive no further notice. In the first cause of action the plaintiff alleged that he and defendant were married in 1906, that a child was born as the fruit of such marriage which then had attained the age of six years, and further alleged numerous and various acts of extreme cruelty covering a period commencing in February, 1907, and continuing up to the year 1911. It is not necessary to here set forth the various and numerous acts of cruelty alleged in the complaint. Plaintiff further alleged that on December 17, 1914, the defendant was duly adjudged insane, and that since that time she has been, and continues to be, confined in the state mental hospital for the insane, and that she is permanently and incurably insane. In connection with the filing of the complaint an application was also made to the district court for the appointment of a guardian ad litem for the defendant as an incompetent person. The court duly appointed a guardian ad litem who employed counsel to represent the defendant in the action. Counsel, in due time, prepared and filed an answer for the guardian ad litem in which the marriage of the respective parties and the birth of one child then living is admitted, while all the other allegations contained in the complaint are denied.

Upon these issues a trial followed, and, after finding the necessary jurisdictional facts and the birth of the child, the court found that the defendant had been guilty of various and numerous acts of extreme cruelty toward the plaintiff during the time alleged in the complaint. It is sufficient to say in that regard that the acts of cruelty found by the court are numerous, extreme, and unjustifiable. The court also found as follows:

"(6) That on the 17th day of December, 1914, the defendant was duly and regularly adjudicated by the constituted authorities of Weber county, state of Utah, to be insane, and on said date was committed to the State Mental Hospital at Provo, in Utah county, state of Utah, where she still is confined; that her insanity is incurable.

"(7) That at the time of the assaults upon the plaintiff and misconduct of the defendant hereinbefore mentioned the defendant was insane, and for some time prior thereto and ever since has been insane, and the alleged acts of cruelty so committed by the defendant were due to the mental condition of the defendant aforesaid and were the irresponsible acts of an insane mind; nevertheless they caused the plaintiff great mental distress and some bodily pain and injury."

As a conclusion of law the court found "that the plaintiff is not entitled to a divorce from the defendant" and entered judgment dismissing the complaint.

We remark that the conclusion of law and judgment are based entirely upon finding 7 aforesaid, and not upon any laches or fault on the part of plaintiff.

The plaintiff appeals from the judgment, and insists that finding 7 is not supported by the evidence, and that the court erred in making the conclusion of law, in not granting plaintiff a decree of divorce, and in dismissing the complaint.

Counsel vigorously assail finding 7, which we have hereinbefore copied in full. They insist that the evidence is conclusive that at least to and including the year 1910 the plaintiff was sane and morally and mentally responsible for all of her acts of cruelty toward the plaintiff. They further contend that there is no evidence to the contrary. The guardian ad litem produced no evidence at the trial. In addition to the testimony by the plaintiff in support of his charges of cruelty from lay witnesses, he also produced medical experts who testified to the physical and mental condition of the defendant. A physician called by plaintiff, who was personally acquainted with the defendant, in substance testified that she for years had been afflicted with epilepsy; that, as the doctor put it, "the nature of her disease is the physic type of mania"; that the disease was progressive; and that prior to the time that she was adjudged insane (December, 1914) she had many lucid intervals. Indeed, the doctor testified that in his judgment she was sane prior to that time; that the nature of the disease she was afflicted with was incurable; that her mental condition as well as her physical and nervous ailments were constantly progressing; and that at the time of trial she was hopelessly and incurably insane. To that effect also is the testimony of the other medical expert who testified on behalf of the plaintiff. There was also testimony that there was insanity in defendant's family on her father's side, and that she was a confirmed epileptic. Plaintiff's counsel, however, insists that under the evidence no other finding than that the defendant was sane at the time she committed the acts of cruelty is justified. They further insist that, in view of that fact, the conclusion of law to which we have referred and the judgment dismissing the complaint cannot be upheld. It is insisted that under the facts and the law applicable thereto the plaintiff is entitled to a decree of divorce. Counsel cite and rely on the following cases: Huston v. Huston, 150 Ky. 353, 150 S.W. 386; Thomason v. Thomason, 142 Ky. 176, 134 S.W. 161; Andrews v. Andrews, 120 Ky. 718, 87 S.W. 1080, 90 S.W. 581; Lewis v. Lewis (Okl.) 158 P. 368; Harrigan v. Harrigan, 135 Cal. 397, 67 P. 506, 87 Am. St. Rep. 118; Fisher v. Fisher, 54 W.Va. 146, 46 S.E. 118, 1 Ann. Cas, 251; Douglass v. Douglass, 31 Iowa 421; Rathbun v. Rathbun, 40 How. Prac. (N.Y.) 328. They also cite 2 Bishop, Marriage, Divorce, and Separation, section 518.

In Huston v. Huston, supra, the Supreme Court of Kentucky said:

"While it is true that neither a wife nor a husband may obtain a divorce from the other on the ground of insanity, or for acts committed during such insanity (Pile v. Pile, 94 Ky. 308 , it is as claimed by counsel for appellant, the well-settled law of this state that a divorce may be obtained for acts occurring prior to the insanity and constituting cause for divorce, and that the mere...