Walton v. Walton

• Decision Date: 09 October 1885
• Citation: 8 P. 110,34 Kan. 195
• Parties: J. E. WALTON v. ELIZABETH WALTON
• Court: Kansas Supreme Court

8 P. 110

34 Kan. 195

J. E. WALTON v. ELIZABETH WALTON

Supreme Court of Kansas

October 9, 1885

Error from Allen District Court.

ACTION for a divorce, brought by Elizabeth Walton against J. E Walton. April 22, 1884, decree for plaintiff. The defendant brings the case here. The facts are stated in the opinion.

Judgment affirmed.

C. F Hutchings, for plaintiff in error.

G. P Smith, for defendant in error.

JOHNSTON J. All the Justices concurring.

OPINION

JOHNSTON, J.:

This action was brought by Elizabeth Walton in the district court of Allen county, to obtain a divorce and alimony from her husband, J. E. Walton. The causes for divorce alleged in her petition were habitual drunkenness, gross neglect of duty, and extreme cruelty. The court tried the case without the intervention of a jury and found in favor of the plaintiff upon one ground, viz.: habitual drunkenness. Upon this ground the court found and stated the facts as follows:

"The plaintiff and defendant were married in Bureau county, Illinois, in August, 1874, and resided there until sometime in February, 1881, when they came to Kansas, and located in Allen county in said state. During the time the parties lived in Illinois as husband and wife, defendant used intoxicating liquors to excess. Sometimes he would be drunk two or three weeks at a time. For the first three months that the parties lived in Kansas, the defendant in a great measure refrained from the use of intoxicating liquors, and generally his habits of intoxication were not so gross in Kansas as they were in Illinois; but after the lapse of said three months, said defendant, while living in Kansas, has used intoxicating liquors to excess, and has been an habitual drunkard. When he went to town he would drink intoxicating liquors and then come home in a state of intoxication; and he would bring home whisky in bottles and jugs, and keep it in the house or out in the stable, and as long as the whisky lasted he would be in a state of intoxication. While the defendant was in such condition he was incapacitated from attending to his business, and he was very quarrelsome and irritable with the plaintiff. On or about August 14, 1883, the defendant went to the city of Humboldt and returned to his house in a state of intoxication; he was quarrelsome and violent to the plaintiff, and ordered her to leave his house, which she did, taking with her the little girl Dora, and said plaintiff has remained away from said defendant ever since. At the time plaintiff married defendant, she did not know he was addicted to the use of intoxicating liquors."

As a conclusion of law, the court found that the plaintiff was entitled to a divorce on account of the habitual drunkenness of defendant, and so decreed. The defendant excepted to the findings of the court, and brings the case here for review.

The chief complaint he makes is, that the findings are not supported by the evidence, and are contrary to law. The testimony in regard to the intemperate habits of the defendant, and the degree of his indulgence in intoxicating drinks, is conflicting. The testimony of the plaintiff is to the effect that, with the exception of a short interval in 1881, the defendant has drank to excess and intoxication with great frequency ever since their marriage in 1874. It appears that they have always resided upon a farm and some distance away from any town; and she states that his practice, with a few exceptions, has been to get drunk as often as he went to town where liquor could be found; that he usually visited town as often as once a week, and some weeks he went there as often as two or three times. She testified that he not only came home intoxicated, but that he generally brought liquor...