Walton v. Walton
| Decision Date | 08 December 1898 |
| Docket Number | 8440 |
| Citation | 77 N.W. 392,57 Neb. 102 |
| Parties | BARBARA S. WALTON, APPELLEE, v. THOMAS WALTON, APPELLANT |
| Court | Nebraska Supreme Court |
APPEAL from the district court of Lancaster county. Heard below before CORNISH, J. Affirmed.
AFFIRMED.
Lamb & Adams, for appellant.
Field & Brown, contra.
See opinion for references to cases cited.
Charles [W. C.] Griffith, from 1888 until the trial of this case in the district court, in 1896, was a married man, fifty-three years old, and a citizen and resident of the city of Lincoln owning a residence therein in which he resided with his family. Griffith seems to have been a farmer and stock-raiser by occupation; at least during this time he owned two large farms of about 800 acres each,--one of them situate about thirteen miles from the city of Lincoln, near the village of Raymond; the other located about four and one-half miles north of the city of Lincoln, and called "Arbor," because a post office by that name was established at the house on this farm. On this latter farm were extensive buildings used in connection with the farming operations and the growing and handling of stock conducted thereon. In the management and conduct of these farms Griffith seems to have adopted in the main a system of carrying them on by means of hired help instead of leasing them. He was frequently at these farms and frequently spent a night thereat. Griffith kept a number of men and women from time to time in his employ at the Arbor farm,--the men engaged in the cultivation of the farm and the care of the stock, and the women doing the housekeeping, washing, and cooking for the men employed. Griffith was frequently at this farm, spending as much perhaps as three days in each week there; had a room fitted up at this farm, which he occupied when he remained there over night; and when at the farm boarded with the person keeping the house. During part of this time--from 1888 until 1895--there lived in the city of Lincoln, Thomas Walton, a widower with three grown children. He was a man of considerable wealth and about fifty-seven years of age. He and Griffith were, and had been for years, well acquainted, and were good friends. During this time it does not appear that Walton was engaged in any particular line of business. He owned various pieces of real estate, collected the rents therefrom, and lived with his grown daughter, in a residence owned by him in the city of Lincoln. In 1860, near the city of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, was born a girl to whom was given the name of Barbara Herr. Subsequently there were born to Barbara's father and mother two sons, one of whom was named Chris and the other George, and another daughter to whom was given the name of Minnie. The parents of these children were farmers, and the children were raised upon a farm in Pennsylvania, and, it appears, raised in the manner that the children of farmers in ordinary circumstances are raised. They worked upon the farm, went to the common schools, and lived with their parents until they were all grown. These children were second cousins of Griffith, who also at one time lived in Pennsylvania, and emigrated therefrom to Nebraska about 1870. He seems to have lived while in Pennsylvania in the same neighborhood as the Herrs, was well acquainted with the children and the parents, and had known the latter since or before their marriage. Some time prior to 1886 Chris Herr came to the state of Nebraska, and went upon the Raymond farm of Griffith, and either as an employe of Griffith, or as a tenant, was in 1888 operating that farm. In July of that year Chris' sister Barbara, being then about twenty-eight years of age, came from Pennsylvania and kept house for her brother Chris, who was then a single man at this Raymond farm. During this time Barbara's brother George, also a single man, was in Griffith's employ on the Arbor farm. Barbara remained at the Raymond farm keeping house for her brother Chris until January, 1891, at which time Chris married; and in March, 1891, Barbara went to Arbor, and began keeping house for her brother George, and so continued until March 13, 1895. In June, 1891, Minnie Herr also came from Pennsylvania and made her home from that time with her sister Barbara and her brother George, at Arbor. These two girls--Minnie and Barbara--from the time they went to Arbor, did the cooking, the washing, and the housekeeping generally done by women upon farms; and during all this time there were various men in Griffith's employ at this farm who boarded at the house; and if a man in Griffith's employ at the farm was a married man, he kept his wife and family with him, and sometimes the married man and his wife lived in the house with the Herr girls and George. These girls--Minnie and Barbara--were hired and paid by their brother George for the work done for him in this housekeeping. During this time Griffith was frequently at this Arbor farm, as already stated, spending perhaps three days and nights of each week there. He had some of his laundry work done there, and for this he paid the girls. Included in the duties of housekeeping was that of taking care of all the rooms of the house occupied by the persons who lived and slept there, including the room occupied by Griffith when he was there.
In December, 1890. Thomas Walton became acquainted with Barbara Herr, subsequently frequently visited and courted her, and finally, on March 13, 1895, married her. After the marriage Walton took his wife to his home in Lincoln, and the two resided there with Walton's daughter by his first wife, until September 21, 1895, when Mrs. Walton left him, and in October afterward sued him in the district court of Lancaster county for a divorce, alleging as grounds therefor that on August 12, 1895 her husband, without any provocation, used vile and opprobrious epithets toward her, calling her "a damned mean woman, a bitch, bad woman, a God damned liar, a God damned fool," and saying to her: that since August 25, 1895, her husband had refused to provide her with any money or means to provide for herself; that on July 20 her husband, without cause or provocation, accused her with having been guilty of adultery with Griffith and other persons since her marriage, accused her of being a vile woman, and called her a whore and other vile names; that on September 14, 1895, her husband caused to be published in a daily newspaper in the city of Lincoln a notice forbidding all persons from giving credit to her; that the publication of such notice was without any cause or provocation; that she had never at any time purchased any goods or contracted any debt whatever upon the credit of her husband; that her husband, unreasonably and without any cause, forbade her sister Minnie and her brother George from visiting her at her home, and on September 4 of said year notified her brother and sister and Charles Griffith in writing not to come upon his premises; that since September 8, 1895, her husband had refused to eat at the same table with her, and refused to eat food prepared by her, falsely alleging as a reason therefor that she intended to poison him; that on September 14, 1895, her husband, without any cause or provocation, willfully and cruelly struck and beat her, and again on September 21, without cause or provocation therefor, seized and choked her, and at both of these times called her vile and opprobrious names; that this conduct on the part of the husband toward her constituted extreme cruelty, and put her continually in fear of bodily injury to such an extent that on September 21 she was compelled to and did abandon the husband's home. There were further allegations by the wife that during all of her married life she had been faithful and chaste to her husband, and had faithfully performed all of her marital duties and given him no cause or provocation for his cruel treatment.
Walton in his answer to this petition, admitted publishing the notice forbidding persons to give his wife credit, alleging as a reason therefor that she had threatened to pledge his credit, notwithstanding he had provided her with all the necessaries of life; admitted that he had forbidden the sister and brother of his wife and Griffith to visit her at their home, and alleged as a reason therefor that they were maliciously intermeddling in the affairs of himself and wife, and attempting to alienate her affections from him; admitted that after September 13 he had refused to eat at the same table with his wife, and alleged as a reason for this conduct that he feared his wife intended to poison him. He denied generally the other charges against him, and interposed as an affirmative defense that his wife had conducted herself improperly toward him; that she became cross, morose, and abusive; called him "an old fool;" said she was ashamed of him; said she was ashamed to be seen in his society; called him "old stinginess;" said that she married him for his money; said that she had been unfaithful to him, and criminally intimate with other men, and would be so again; that on May 27, 1895, and at divers dates after that time, she had committed adultery with Griffith and with other men to him unknown; that she threatened to strike him with a butcher-knife, threatened to put him out of the house, and to lock him out, and did on one occasion push him off the porch of his house. The prayer of his answer was that his wife's petition for a divorce...
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