Sutcliffe v. Sutcliffe, 19582

• Decision Date: 06 March 1973
• Docket Number: No. 19582,19582
• Citation: 260 S.C. 198,195 S.E.2d 113
• Court: South Carolina Supreme Court
• Parties: Linnie SUTCLIFFE, Respondent, v. Christina SUTCLIFFE, Appellant.

Page 113

195 S.E.2d 113

260 S.C. 198

Linnie SUTCLIFFE, Respondent, v. Christina SUTCLIFFE, Appellant.

No. 19582.

Supreme Court of South Carolina.

March 6, 1973.

Clyde C. Dean, Orangeburg, Hammer & Bernstein, Columbia, for appellant.

O. Harry Bozardt, Jr., Orangeburg, and Kermit S. King, Columbia, for respondent.

BUSSEY, Justice:

This is a child custody proceeding in which the wife appeals from an order of the lower court awarding custody of the five children of the parties to the husband. At the time of the hearing below, in February 1972, the children of the parties were a son aged 17, and four daughters ranging in age from seven to fifteen years. The husband and children were living in a home acquired by the family some two years before, and the wife was living in a rented house with two bedrooms, all in the vicinity of Norway, South Carolina. The husband was working on a rotating shift at Carolina Eastman Co. near Columbia. His father and mother and also an aunt and uncle lived within a couple of hundred yards of his residence, but the children were staying by themselves while he was away at work. The wife was employed by the telephone company in Norway on day work and had a part time bookkeeping job in addition. With the exception of the incident which gave rise to the separation of the parties, the husband conceded that the wife was both a fine and capable mother to the children and a fine wife to him.

On the afternoon of December 6, 1971, the wife was working at the telephone company, part time, having been recently employed. At about 5:15 or 5:30, the husband called her on the telephone and requested her to run an errand for him before coming home. She was supposed to be home at approximately 6:00 P.M., and when she did not arrive quite so soon as expected, the husband promptly went looking for her. He found her at approximately 6:15 P.M. in her automobile on a dirt road on the edge of a field approximately one hundred yards off Highway 321, in view of the highway, though it was then dusk dark or shortly thereafter. A Mr. Smith was coming out of the road in a pickup truck. Concluding that there was some improper conduct between his wife and Mr. Smith, he, in his own words, 'slapped Hell' out of his wife, knocking her to the ground. He contended that he only struck her once, but the evidence is in conflict, and we think it obvious that he struck her more than one blow and that she was painfully and severely beaten and bruised, though fortunately not seriously injured, and not really given any opportunity to explain what she was doing there until after she was beaten. They proceeded home in his car leaving hers and she attempted to explain to him on the way home, but, he did not wish to accept her explanation. She asked him if he wanted her to leave, and he told her yes, to get out, upon which she departed and has not since returned.

Prior to this incident, Mr. and Mrs. Smith and Mr. and Mrs. Sutcliffe had been intimate friends, visiting back and forth in the homes of each other, with Mr. Sutcliffe and Mr. Smith bird hunting together. Some time a month or two prior to this incident, Mr. Smith had loaned to Mrs. Sutcliffe the sum of $700, with which to make the down payment on a lot at Lake Murray. At the time, Mrs. Sutcliffe contemplated going to work and the arrangement was that she would pay Mr. Smith back as she earned it. She testified that Mr. Sutcliffe knew of the loan. He denied knowledge of such, but from his equivocating answers about the lot and his knowledge thereof, we think it clear that he well knew of the lot purchase and most probably of the loan.

The dirt road where Mrs. Sutcliffe was assaulted by her husband leads across an open field to a cow pasture gate, the field and pasture being the property of Mr. Smith. According to her, she had gotten her first pay check that morning and cashed the same. In driving along the highway she saw Mr. Smith's truck turn into the dirt road and wanting to make him a payment on account, she turned in the road behind him. She followed his truck to the turn around at the cow pasture gate, stopped, got out of her car, went to the the truck, paid him $50, and had returned to her car to proceed home when her husband approached. She did not enter the Smith truck, nor did he alight therefrom.

The testimony of Mr. Smith fully corroborated that of Mrs. Sutcliffe in every detail. He further testified that at the time he was returning from checking the land line on some property he...