Tuyls v. Tuyls
| Decision Date | 20 January 1961 |
| Docket Number | No. 35920,35920 |
| Citation | 171 N.E.2d 779,21 Ill.2d 192 |
| Parties | Verdell TUYLS, Appellee, v. Robert TUYLS, Appellant. |
| Court | Illinois Supreme Court |
Hempstead, Redman, Shearer & Gorecki, St. Charles (Richard D. Shearer, St. Charles, of counsel), for appellant.
O'Brien, Burnell, Puckett & Barnett, Aurora (Wilson D. Burnell, and John A. Krause, Aurora, of counsel), for appellee.
This is a direct appeal prosecuted by the defendant, Robert Tuyls, to review a decree of the circuit court of Kane County granting a divorce to the plaintiff, Verdell Tuyls, and ordering the defendant to convey to her, in satisfaction of special equities and as a property settlement in lieu of alimony, all interest which he had as a joint tenant of an apartment building in which the parties resided prior to their separation. A freehold being involved, the jurisdiction of this court has been properly invoked.
When plaintiff first became acquainted with defendant in 1951, she owned real estate in Plano and a duplex house in Oswego, but during the following year she sold her Plano property and delivered a check in the amount of $3,350 to the defendant. In 1953, defendant began collecting the rents, making necessary repairs, and generally undertook the management of the Oswego duplex until it was sold in 1954, at which time the net sale proceeds of $4,071.23 were deposited in defendant's separate bank account. On June 1, 1954, in contemplation of marriage, an apartment building located at 72 North Fourth Street, Aurora, being the property now in controversy, was purchased in the name of Robert Tuyls and Verdell Tuyls, as joint tenants; the down payment of $5,198.58 was procured from defendant's bank account; and the unpaid balance of approximately $13,000 was financed by a first mortgage upon the premises.
The parties were married on July 19, 1954, and plaintiff thereafter continued to work, earning something in excess of two thousand dollars each year until 1959, approximately 85% of which she delivered to defendant. In addition, defendant collected $315 each month in rentals from the other apartment occupants. Meanwhile, defendant was engaged in the used car business until July, 1955, after which he alternately worked around the apartment house, sought employment, and finally became engaged in a liquor business in November, 1956, which, be defendant's own admission, has not been an especially profitable venture.
As to the alleged acts of cruelty, plaintiff testified that defendant struck her in the face in either July or August, 1957, and on two or three other occasions prior to April 27, 1959. During the early morning hours of the latter date, according to plaintiff, the defendant hit her with his fists, slapped her in the face, and locked her outside the house so as to require the summoning of police and the arrest of the defendant. Clifton Retterer, a local justice of the peace, and Melvin Kramer, the police officer who arrested defendant, both testified that plaintiff was bleeding about the mouth when they saw her on the morning of April 27, 1959, and plaintiff's mother recalled seeing bruises upon her daughter's arms following the 1957 altercation. Plaintiff also swore that her husband had at no time repaid any part of the $3,350 she loaned him in 1952 nor accounted to her for the various rentals he had received, that she furnished the groceries while they were married, that defendant frequently took vacation trips while she continued to work, and that sums borrowed for apartment improvements were diverted by defendant for his own personal use.
In his own behalf, Robert Tuyls admitted his total income for the past two years had not amounted to more than seven hundred dollars, insisted the $3,350 received by him from plaintiff in 1952 was not a loan but an investment, claimed he had spent several thousand dollars of his own money in improving the Oswego and Aurora properties, but denied that he had at any time struck or beat the plaintiff. He now contends that extreme and repeated cruelty was not established by the evidence and that the lower court erred in awarding the real estate to plaintiff.
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Roback v. Roback
... ... or endanger life or limb, do not constitute cruelty under the Divorce Act, the Supreme Court more liberally defined the meaning of cruelty in Tuyls v. Tuyls, 21 Ill.2d 192, at page 195, 171 N.E.2d 779 at page 781 (1961) where it stated: 'To establish cruelty within the meaning of our Divorce Act ... ...
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Sullivan v. Sullivan
... ... Tuyls v. Tuyls, 21 Ill.2d 192, 171 N.E.2d 779; Baker v. Baker, 412 Ill. 511, 107 N.E.2d 711. Our examination of the record discloses nothing calling for ... ...
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Collins v. Collins
...circumstances, and based on the record of this case, we find no basis to disturb the finding of the trial court. Tuyls v. Tuyls (1961), 21 Ill.2d 192, 195, 171 N.E.2d 779; Hayes v. Hayes (5th Dist. 1969), 117 Ill.App.2d 211, 215, 254 N.E.2d We also disagree with defendant's contention that ......
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Haring v. Haring
...friends. The evidence in this case, as it often is in a contested divorce case, is conflicting. As was stated in Tuyls v. Tuyls, 21 Ill.2d 192, 195, 171 N.E.2d 779, 781 (1961), 'To establish cruelty within the meaning of our Divorce Act (Ill.Rev.Stat.1959, chap. 40, par. 1) it is necessary ......