Vitale v. Vitale

• Decision Date: 18 January 1957
• Court: California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals
• Parties: Ralph VITALE, by Adrienne Principal, his guardian ad litem, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Louise VITALE, individually and as guardlan of the person of Ralph Vitale, an incompetent person, Defendant and Appellant. Civ. 17173.

Page 690

305 P.2d 690

147 Cal.App.2d 665

Ralph VITALE, by Adrienne Principal, his guardian ad litem, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Louise VITALE, individually and as guardlan of the person of Ralph Vitale, an incompetent person, Defendant and Appellant.

Civ. 17173.

District Court of Appeal, First District, Division 1, California.

Jan. 18, 1957.

H. W. Glensor, San Francisco, Donald J. Kennedy, Palo Alto, for appellant.

Alfred J. Harwood, San Francisco, for respondent.

BRAY, Justice.

On the ground of plaintiff's unsoundness of mind at the time of the marriage plaintiff was granted a judgment annulling it. Defendant appeals, claiming insufficiency of the evidence to support the finding that plaintiff was of unsound mind on the day of the marriage and that on the contrary, the evidence conclusively proves him to have been of sound mind on that day.

Evidence.

Defendant correctly states that the degree of mental capacity at the precise time when the marriage is celebrated controls as to its validity or invalidity, and that if a marriage is contracted during a lucid interval the marriage is valid. See 38 C.J. p. 1288; 55 C.J.S., Marriage, § 12, p. 825.

Plaintiff is a 56 year old plumber of Italian parentage. Defendant is a 38 year old employee of a telephone company. They met in the late summer of 1952 and started going out together. By Christmas plaintiff began proposing marriage. Defendant, because of ill health, refused. In May, 1954, defendant finally accepted and on May 24th they were married in Reno. They returned to plaintiff's home in Palo Alto and lived together there until June 6th. On that day plaintiff went to a hospital. Defendant learned that he was there as a mental patient, and upon a doctor's advice, she signed a petition charging him with being mentally unsound. He was transferred to Agnew State Hospital, and after a hearing committed there, where he is still confined.

Plaintiff's son Frank testified that when plaintiff returned November 2, 1953, from a trip to Europe his father had changed. Frank then related many instances in which his father talked incoherently, had hallucinations, believed that some organization was after him, and that television programs, cards in a drug store and other matters evidenced plots against him. In Frank's opinion his father was of unsound mind. Asked by defendant as to whether in his opinion plaintiff was of unsound mind at all times between November 2, 1953, and the date of the trial, including May 24th, the day of the marriage, Frank replied affirmatively.

Mrs. Tharp, a real estate agent who knew plaintiff well for over ten years, testified that after returning from Europe plaintiff acted 'very odd,' was upset, heard noises, had been 'framed' by a woman who was after his money and from whom he was trying to get away (which was untrue), pointed to a dog on a postcard and claimed it was a woman. In her opinion plaintiff was very unsound and confused.

One Beccelli knew plaintiff for about seven years. After plaintiff's return from Europe, plaintiff stated that people were following him. Plaintiff unjustly accused the witness of putting white powder in his coffee. In August, at Agnew when the witness stated that he had heard plaintiff had been married, plaintiff stated he knew nothing about it. In the witness' opinion plaintiff after his return from Europe 'was off his mind.'

Plaintiff called three expert witnesses. Defendant called none. Dr. Quirmbach, Clinical Director of Agnew State Hospital who saw plaintiff for the first time at Agnew about June 8th (about fifteen days after the marriage), testified that plaintiff then had a paranoid psychosis, which could also be described as schizophrenia; that on June 8th he was not competent to understand the obligations of the marriage relation, nor to undertake any act of importance, and that his psychosis continued from November, 1953. When asked his opinion concerning plaintiff's competency on May 24th to comprehend the duties and responsibilities of marriage he stated that plaintiff could not do so, basing his reasoning on the fact that plaintiff 'was markedly psychotic and delusioned, and a delusional mental illness such as this colors a man's or person's whole actions and activity and thinking. So that whatever he does is in some way touched by it when an illness becomes as marked as this, and so that he isn't really competent to make decisions as a rational person, rather is influenced by the false ideas that he has,' and further that plaintiff entered into the marriage 'as a kind of a device to ward off the troubles that were conflicting him at the time and bothering him,' and that his 'delusional ideas so affected his relationship with the woman that he did not understand what he was entering into.'

Dr. Wilbur (apparently a medical practitioner) who knew plaintiff since some time in the 1930's, saw plaintiff at his office on May 22nd (two days before the marriage), and testified that the day before plaintiff called him from Los Angeles and said he had a cut on his elbow which he had received in Los Angeles and which he wanted the witness to fix. When asked how he got the cut plaintiff said the witness knew all about it, as the witness was there when it happened. (This was not true.) Plaintiff admitted that he had voluntarily cut himself. The cut was 1 3/4 inches long directly over an artery. The witness sent plaintiff to Dr. Johnston. Plaintiff had put needles in each of his own toes and told Dr. Wilbur that he was sure that when the doctor had repaired plaintiff's bunions the preceding February, the doctor had put radio receiving sets in each of his toes, so that the cops could keep track of plaintiff. Dr. Wilbur further testified that plaintiff was of unsound mind on May 22nd, and was unable to understand the nature and responsibilities of marriage and even simpler relationships than that.

Dr. Johnston, the psychiatrist to whom Dr. Wilbur referred plaintiff, saw him on May 26th (two days after the marriage). Plaintiff told him that on the boat returning from Europe he first noticed that people were trying to communicate with him over television and through the receiving sets which Dr. Wilbur had put in his toes. Plaintiff told him about other delusional activities on the boat. Plaintiff's ability to do abstract thinking was greatly impaired. His condition was 'paranoid schizophrenic reaction of a severe type.' He did not have sufficient mental capacity to understand the duties and responsibilities of marriage. While plaintiff indicated that he had previously been married and divorced he did not tell the witness of his marriage two days before. Asked on cross-examination if the witness knew that at the time of the wedding and for a couple of weeks thereafter plaintiff had given no intimation of mental disturbance, the witness would change his opinion, he replied that he would not.

Mrs. Carey, a witness for defendant, testified that before he went to Europe plaintiff stated that he would like to marry defendant, and on his return stated that he liked her as much as ever.

Mr. Cavitt, an insurance broker, tax consultant and accountant, knew plaintiff since 1948,...