Wallace v. Wallace
| Decision Date | 16 July 1929 |
| Docket Number | 6487. |
| Parties | WALLACE v. WALLACE. |
| Court | Montana Supreme Court |
Appeal from District Court, Powell County; Wm. E. Carroll, Presiding Judge.
Action by Helen Mary Wallace against Martha J. Wallace. Judgment for plaintiff, and defendant appeals. Affirmed.
W. J Paul, of Deer Lodge, and Murphy & Whitlock, of Missoula, for appellant.
Harry H. Parsons, of Missoula, S. P. Wilson, of Deer Lodge, and John G. Brown, of Helena, for respondent.
The plaintiff herein, Helen Mary Wallace, brought action in February, 1927, against Martha J. Wallace, mother of plaintiff's husband, William Hibbs Wallace, for the alienation of her husband's affection. Issues being joined, the cause was tried before the court and jury. At the close of the taking of all testimony, defendant moved for a directed verdict, which motion was overruled and the jury instructed as to the law of the case. The jury returned a verdict in favor of plaintiff for $20,000, and judgment was duly entered thereon. Defendant moved for a new trial, which motion was denied. Defendant has appealed from the judgment, and herein makes numerous assignments of error, raising the questions herein discussed.
The undisputed evidence discloses the following facts: The plaintiff, referred to throughout the testimony as "Ella May," and hereinafter so called for convenience, met William Hibbs Wallace, known and hereinafter referred to as "Billy," while the two were students at the State University, and there became engaged during the school year of 1923-1924. Upon graduation in 1924, plaintiff went to California, where she taught school, and the engagement was broken off in the fall of that year because of religious differences, plaintiff being a Catholic and Billy a Protestant.
Plaintiff returned to Montana in the summer of 1925, and called Billy by 'phone from Butte, and thereafter twice visited the home of defendant and Billy, in Powell county, at the invitation of defendant. On August 5, 1925, the young couple were married in Butte by a Catholic priest, and at that time Billy signed an agreement that any children born to them should be raised in the Catholic faith. At that time a partnership existed between defendant and Billy in conducting ranching operations on a large ranch, left to defendant during her lifetime, and to Billy on her death, by defendant's deceased husband.
The young couple went to the ranch immediately after their marriage, and they and the defendant jointly made the ranchhouse their home for more than a year thereafter. From January to the latter part of April following the young couple were absent in Europe.
Plaintiff was confined in a hospital in Missoula in July, 1926, and there gave birth to a child on the 18th of that month; she remained in the hospital until the 5th day of September, when she returned to the ranch with her baby, and with a nurse in attendance. She was met with coldness on the part of Billy and his mother; Billy sent the nurse back to Missoula almost immediately, and left the ranch the same night and did not return. On September 28, 1926, he commenced divorce proceedings, which resulted in a decree in favor of the wife and the award to her of alimony in the sum of $150 per month for her support and the care of a delicate child requiring frequent medical and surgical treatment.
In oral argument we were advised that this was a second trial of this cause, the first having resulted in a verdict in favor of plaintiff for $40,000, which verdict was set aside by the trial court as excessive.
1. It is first contended that the evidence is insufficient to warrant the submission of the case to the jury or to justify the verdict and judgment.
In considering this assignment, we are bound by the following well-established rules circumscribing our right to review the evidence: So long as we retain the jury system and our present statutory provisions with regard thereto, courts and litigants must abide by the decision of the jury respecting the weight of the evidence and the credibility of the witnesses; these are matters with which this court, on appeal, has nothing to do. Chicago Title & Trust Co. v. O'Marr, 25 Mont. 242, 64 P. 506. A jury may believe the testimony of one witness and disbelieve that of another, or any number of others, and the determination of the jury in this regard is final; having spoken, this court must assume that the facts are as stated by the witnesses believed by the jury, and claimed by the prevailing party. Hanson Sheep Co. v. Farmers', etc., State Bank, 53 Mont. 324, 163 P. 1151; Watts v. Billings Bench Water Association, 78 Mont. 199, 253 P. 260. The preponderance of the evidence may be established by a single witness as against a greater number of witnesses who testify to the contrary. McQuay v. McQuay, 81 Mont. 311, 263 P. 683.
It follows that wherever there is a conflict in the evidence this court may only review the testimony for the purpose of determining whether or not there is any substantial evidence in the record to support the verdict of the jury, and must accept the evidence there found as true, unless that evidence is so inherently impossible or improbable as not to be entitled to belief; and, where a verdict is based upon substantial evidence which, from any point of view, could have been accepted by the jury as credible, it is binding upon this court, although it may appear inherently weak. Williams v. Thomas, 58 Mont. 576, 194 P. 500. Where the evidence is conflicting, but substantial evidence appears in the record to support the judgment, the judgment will not be disturbed on appeal, and this is especially true when the court, as here, has passed upon the sufficiency of the evidence on motion for a directed verdict and motion for a new trial and upheld its sufficiency. Bank of Commerce v. United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co., 58 Mont. 236, 194 P. 158.
Considering, then, all of the evidence presented to the jury on behalf of the plaintiff as the facts on which the jury rendered its verdict, without detailing it at length, we have the picture of a strong-minded, keen-witted mother, wholly wrapped up in her only child, fearful of being separated from him, and jealous of any one seeming to come between them; as a young lady, previously engaged to Billy, said to defendant, "You are afraid someone will get your damned beautiful baby."
There is nothing in the record to show that defendant was in any way concerned in the breaking off of the first engagement of the young people, but the glee with which Billy received knowledge that Ella May was back in the state and willing to see him, and the haste with which he became re-engaged and married, indicate that he was not particularly prejudiced against her religion; the record clearly shows that defendant was strongly opposed to a union with a Catholic. True, defendant twice, within a short period of time, invited plaintiff to the ranch before the marriage, but it is to be noted that on the second occasion she absented herself so that plaintiff, feeling slighted and placed in an embarrassing position, refused to stay out her proposed visit, and within a few days after the marriage the defendant expressed the hope that Ella May would become drunk on cocktails served in her house "and teach Billy a lesson." The young couple was married without her consent, and, being informed by telephone that the ceremony was pending, and asked if they should come home first, she replied "No," and refused to attend. On leaving the 'phone, defendant executed a dance, and remarked that she could now leave the ranch. Asked as to the defendant showing pleasure at the news of the marriage, the witness telling of the matter replied, "Rather than acting delighted and gratified at the time she danced, Mrs. Wallace acted rather hysterical, but so far as I could judge from her appearance she was well pleased at the time; and if she became displeased at any time it was after she first heard of their marriage." This witness further testified that "before they were married she had said she would not live on the ranch with them." Almost immediately she stood before the picture of her deceased husband, and, with tears in her eyes, cried, "They won't get any of our money, will they, Daddy?"
As the time for the arrival of the couple drew near, she then required the maid to coat her face with white powder and paint black circles under her eyes and to tell Billy when he returned that she had eaten nothing and cried all day. She referred to Ella May, in the presence of Billy and before the marriage, "as a dirty Irish Catholic," and made slighting remarks concerning her, indulging in shrugs, gestures, grimaces. On the arrival of the young couple, she told them that the marriage could not be successful owing to the difference in religion.
Although Billy was a full partner in the operation of the ranch, and consequently had equal rights with his mother in the house, the couple was accorded little privacy, even in their bedchamber. This partnership was ended three days after the marriage by the defendant, without giving Billy any voice in the matter, on the ground of his refusal to rise at 6:30 on Sunday morning; he was given $4,000 out of his investment of $18,000, and was thereafter told that he could work for his board and clothes. Defendant thereafter acquired property belonging to Billy at the time of the marriage, valued at many thousands of dollars, which, according to her testimony, Billy "gave" to her.
Within a few days after the marriage, she told the young husband that she was going to change her will and leave all her property to charity; that Catholic grandchildren should have none of her...
To continue reading
Request your trial