Wilson v. Oldroyd

• Citation: 1 Utah 2d 362,267 P.2d 759
• Decision Date: 03 March 1954
• Docket Number: No. 7969,7969
• Parties: d 362 WILSON, v. OLDROYD.
• Court: Utah Supreme Court

Page 759

267 P.2d 759

1 Utah 2d 362

WILSON, v. OLDROYD.

No. 7969.

Supreme Court of Utah.

March 3, 1954.

George W. Worthen, Provo, Arnold Roylance, Springville, Pugsley, Hayes & Rampton, Salt Lake City, for appellant.

Christenson & Christenson, Provo, for respondent.

CROCKETT, Justice.

Dale Berkeley Wilson recovered judgment of $50,000 compensatory and $25,000 punitive damages against Dr. Merrill L. Oldroyd for alienation of the affections of plaintiff's wife. The jury found against defendant on his counterclaim for slander, but allowed him $719 for medical services rendered to plaintiff's family which is an offset against the judgment.

Errors assigned: (A) Denial of defendant's motion to dismiss the complaint as insufficient; (B) refusal to grant a directed verdict; (C) refusal to set the verdict aside as excessive; (D) submission to the jury of the question of punitive damages; (E) admission of testimony concerning defendant's wealth; (F) exclusion of certain evidence; and (G) errors in the instructions.

Before addressing our attention to the errors just recited, which we will do in the order listed, a brief summary of the essential facts, viewed in the light most favorable to the plaintiff ¹ is in order.

Dale Wilson and his wife Geraldine had married in 1939; they lived in Payson, Utah with their two children; Mr. Wilson had worked for the past six years in the Veterans 'On Farm' Training Program set up by the State Department of Education. Dr. Merrill Oldroyd was a friend and physician to the Wilson family. Plaintiff's testimony, corroborated by other witnesses, described the marriage as a happy one until the 'affair' with Dr. Oldroyd of which we will hear more later. In the fall of 1950, Geraldine, who had been trained as a nurse and had worked at the Payson Hospital on previous occasions, was working there during the vacation of one of the other nurses. She later informed her husband that she thought she would stay on, and although he wanted her to quit, he reluctantly consented to her wishes. During that time he became aware of the fact that his wife and Dr. Oldroyd of the hospital staff had more than a friendly interest in each other. He noted a definite change in his wife's attitude; she became irritable in the home, and showed no affection, but was, in fact, frigid toward him. Upon inquiry about the matter Dr. Oldroyd, and also Geraldine, informed him that she needed an abdominal operation which Mr. Wilson thought might explain her irritability and attitude, so he consented. She continued to work until the 2nd of January, 1951, when she was operated upon. Although it was later learned that at least a meretricious flirtation had been going on between Geraldine and Dr. Oldroyd, an occurrence of that morning was the first definite evidence Mr. Wilson had of it. As he entered the room the doctor was at his wife's bedside; he heard Geraldine say to the doctor, 'Oh honey, you like red lips and curly hair' and the doctor's face was smeared with lipstick.

A day or two later Mr. Wilson went to the doctor and importuned him to stop interfering with his home. The doctor denied any improper conduct and assured Dale Wilson that he was his best friend. Dale, however, warned the doctor that he intended to protect his home by every means he could. Early in January, Geraldine told Dale she loved Dr. Oldroyd. Sensing that the situation had not changed, about January 19th Dale again visited the defendant in the latter's office and pled with him to leave his wife alone, referring to a letter the doctor had written to Geraldine. The doctor denied writing it and only admitted it the next evening when Dale met with him and Mrs. Oldroyd and produced the letter in the doctor's own handwriting addressed to Geraldine Wilson, who had then gone to her father's home in Riverside, California. The letter reveals much more than the platonic interest Dr. Oldroyd professed for Geraldine. It was filled with terms of love and endearment, beginning: 'Geraldine Sweetheart:--If ever I need you it's tonight' and concluding 'Remember my dear--all the times I've told you I love you. I still do a thousand fold--believe me--Write often sweetheart to your humble servant--the one who cares.' The return address was to a third party, evidently so that if the letter were returned it would not fall into the hands of the doctor's wife.

Dale exacted a promise from the doctor to write another letter to Geraldine advising her to go back to her husband, which the doctor in fact wrote. Geraldine returned to Payson, and discussed the discovered love affair with Dale, and on January 31st a 'final' meeting between Geraldine and the doctor was arranged, ostensibly for the purpose of discontinuing their relationship. Mrs. Oldroyd was an unobserved witness to this meeting. It lasted for about 3 hours during which she saw the couple embracing and kissing each other. The relationship did not end following this meeting; the doctor and Geraldine had later meetings in Salt Lake and Las Vegas, Nevada, and continued to correspond through intermediaries, each agreeing to destroy the letters upon receipt. In his deposition, defendant admitted that he had kissed Geraldine as early as November, and an indefinite number of times since, and that by the fore part of December he had told her he loved her. He also stated to his own wife that he desired to help Geraldine financially, but that he could not do so as long as she was Dale's wife. The doctor called his own wife to testify for him on the counterclaim for slander. On cross-examination she admitted that she knew of her husband's romance with Mrs. Wilson; that on the occasion of the last Las Vegas meeting between her husband and Geraldine she had not known of his whereabouts until tipped off by Dale; that her husband had made it a point to call her the next day from Sun Valley, Idaho, to allay any suspicions of the Las Vegas trip; that she had given considerable thought to trying to break up the affair with Geraldine which she averred had continued up to the time of the present trial. The marital difficulties of the Wilsons resulted in a divorce and subsequently this suit was prosecuted.

A. The complaint contains the essential allegations of a cause of action for alienation of affections: (a) The fact of marriage, (b) that the defendant wilfully and intentionally, (c) alienated the wife's affections, (d) resulting in the loss of the comfort, society and consortium of the wife, and (e) (to justify punitive damages) a charge of malice. Particularly under our new Rules of Civil Procedure ² a statement of the ultimate facts is sufficient and it is unnecessary to set forth in detail the conduct, the language or the artifices used to accomplish the result.

B. As to the directed verdit: In addition to the general charge that the evidence failed to make out the elements of the cause of action just referred to, the defendant added two contentions: First, that Mr. Wilson had already lost the affections of his wife, so there was nothing left for him to alienate; and Second, that his conduct with Mrs. Wilson, although admittedly indiscreet and somewhat below the standard of rectitude that properly could be expected of him, was but a transitory flirtation which would have subsided in due time, and thus would not have constituted a deprivation of the plaintiff of his wife's affections. A full answer to this is to be found in the fact that the evidence was conflicting on these matters. Each of these theories was properly submitted to the jury; they rejected defendant's claims and found for the plaintiff.

C. Defendant claims that the verdict should be set aside because it is so grossly excessive as to clearly manifest that it was an expression of passion and prejudice. This resulted, he avers, from the fact that the action was tried in his home county where he was well known as a doctor and a comparatively wealthy man, by a jury who were lacking in the broadmindedness and tolerance necessary to appraise his conduct in its true light as only a breach of social standards, and who, being unjustifiably shocked by the impropriety of his conduct, threw reason to the winds and let passion and prejudice prevail in imposing what he characterizes as an unconscionable award of damages against him. The truth of this charge is clearly indicated, he says, by the fact that this appears to be the largest such award ever made in this state. Insofar as we are aware, this is true; it is not only the largest in the limited history of such cases in this state, but is among the highest to be found anywhere.

It might be observed that the largest award must be made for the first time, otherwise the first award ever made would become the maximum that ever could be recovered. The amount of this verdict has company in the range of verdicts for such wrongs. In the Vermont case of Woodhouse v. Woodhouse, ³ an action against parents for alienation of the affections of a husband, recovery of $125,000 was upheld; a verdict of $100,000, of which $25,000 was punitive damages, was affirmed in Mohn v. Tingley; ⁴ $75,000 was finally approved by the Ohio Appellate Court in Oskamp v. Oskamp ⁵ where a conspiracy existed to alienate the affections of a wife. It is true that special fact situations existed in these cases which are collated along with others relating to the excessiveness of verdicts in such actions at 69 A.L.R. 1282 which includes cases showing other verdicts in excess of $75,000 which had been modified by trial courts because the plaintiff had already had a property settlement in a divorce action, ⁶ or because the marriage was obviously of little worth to either spouse as a result of troublesome family life. ⁷ Under the facts, as we must assume the jury found them in the instant case, the reasons for reduction just stated are not present here. Although amounts assessed in analogous, though not exactly similar situations, are helpful...