Case ID: sw2d_242/html/0673-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "CRAMER, Justice.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

HOGUE v. HOGUE.
    No. 14329.
    Court Of Civil Appeals of Texas. Dallas.
    May 4, 1951.
    
      Blakeley & Blakeley and Carey Williams, all of Dallas, 'for appellant..
    Jack Y. Hardee, Robert H. Fields and W. B. Fields, all of Athens, for appellee.
   CRAMER, Justice.

Appellee filed this action based on cruel treatment for a divorce against appellant and for custody of their minor child. In a contested trial before the court without a .jury the divorce was granted appellee but the custody of the child was awarded appellaqt, with an allowance of $25 per month for the support of the child. Appellant duly perfected her appeal and here assigns three points of error to the granting of the divorce, in substance that appel-lee failed to establish by full and satisfactory evidence (1) six months residence in Henderson County; or (2) cruel treatment as alleged; and (3) error in granting divorce on the uncorroborated evidence of appellee. The evidence on the first point was that prior to the first wedding both parties lived at Brownsboro in Henderson County, Texas, had gone to school together, and known each other, all their lives. Appellee had returned •from, some three years service in the Army and entered Southern Methodist University, where appellant was also a student, and went with appellant about a month before their first marriage. A short time after such first marriage, appellee was granted a divorce from appellant. On July 22, 1946, they remarried in Brownsboro and operated a store there for about 18 months; then sold the store and started on vacation to Mexico with intention of returning and going to school. While passing through the Valley, they .decided to stop there and farm for a while in order to add to their school funds. ' Failing to accumulate more than a living, they left about four months later and went to Kilgore wheré appellee enrolled in Kilgore Junior College. While there, he and his wife ran a liquor store. They left Kilgore about September 1949 and went to Commerce where appellee again entered school; while in school there, worked some in a grocery store; his testimony being 'that he did not intend to make his home any place other than Brownsboro in Henderson County; that he had no intention of living any other place permanently until he finished school. He testified that he and his wife would return to Brownsboro and remain until he found a job, and then if he found better permanent employment away from Browns-boro than in Brownsboro he probably would move to such place where such permanent employment could be obtained. Until then, Brownsboro would be his home.

Appellee further testified on cross-examination:

“Q. You don’t intend to come back to Brownsboro after you leave Commerce, you stated on cross-examination that you were going to get a job and go wherever it was necessary to work? A. If I find one I will.
“Q. You don’t, intend to return, to Brownsboro after .you finish school? A.’ I probably will, because my folks live there.
“Q. What , are your intentions, you have said you will try. to .get employment? A. A man has to have a home, and Browns-boro is my home.
. “Q. In the last few years you haven’t spent any time in Brownsboro at all to amount-to anything,- since you left and.went to' San Benita, have, you?. A. Well, we have been back quite a little, we came home ofice a week. . . . • . . ■
“Q. Just • came -home on visits ? A. Yes, we came home - on visits,- school students do that.
“Q. You didn’t live there through any of that time? A. Lived at Brownsboro, I was going to school, I couldn’t live there.
“Q: During that time you maintained a home either in Kilgore or Commerce? A. I maintained a residence, I couldn’t have a home, Tam not'rich. T- had a home in Brownsboro,-- that was my home, and is now.” - ' - .

He also testified that he did-not then have any property ⅜ Henderson County or elsewhere; that the only poll tax he had paid was either in 1946 'or 1947, and in Henderson County; that as a student in College, his designated home was Browns-boro in Henderson County. While appel-lee’s evidence was controverted by appellant, such conflicts were. by the trier of the facts resolved in appellee’s . favor. Under the facts the domicile claimed by appellee was his domicile of origin as distinguished from a domicile of choice. As stated in Struble v. Struble, Tex.Civ.App., 177 S.W.2d 279, at page 283, Syl. 2: “ * * * The former is the domicile of the person’s parents, or the person oh whom he is legally dependent, at the time of his birth. The latter is that place which a person chooses for himself. It has ' for its true basis or foundation the intention of the person. 28 C.J.S., Domicile, § 4 et seq., p. 10 et seq.” In Texas “the rule seems to be well established that, where one has a domicile of origin, in order to show a change, clear • and convincing proof of change of domicile must be made. * * * ” Dodd v. Dodd, Tex.Civ.App., 45 S.W.2d 686, at page 687, Syls. 1-3. ,In the same case it is also stated: “The words ‘inhabitant/ ‘resident/ and ‘citizen/ as used in our statute pertaining to divorce, have substantially the same meaning.” Temporary- absence from the county of domicile and residence does not break the continuity of the residence or change the- domicile-of origin. As said in the c-ase of Snyder v. Snyder, Tex.Civ.App., 279 S.W. 897, 898: “The allegations as to Bexar county not being the residence of appellee cannot be sustained: . Appellee was born and reared in -San Antonio and owned property in that city. He was a baseball player attached to the New York Giants,, a noted ball team, and spent his summer months in the North, in the baseball season playing with his team, but came to San Antonio. He had the legal right to sue for a divorce in Bexar county, Téx.”

The findings ' of the trial co'urt having substantial support in evidence, and having been full and satisfactory to the trial judge,. we . approve same. Bomar v. Bomar, Tex.Civ.App., 229 S.W.2d 859, Syl. 3; Therwhanger v. Therwhanger, Tex.Civ. App., 175 S.W.2d 704, and cases there cited. Point -1 is overruled.

The second point challenges the trial court’s finding of cruel treatment. This fact also in a divorce case .must be established by full and satisfactory evidence not only to the trial court but to this Court.

Cruel treatment, as used in our statute, Art. 4629, Vernon’s, Ann.Civ.St., may be physical or mental, or both, and must be such as to render the parties’ living together insupportable. In - considering such.fact, each case must of necessity stand upon its own-peculiar testimony. Acts which may be intolerable, to one person -may not be so to another. . All the evidence must’ be examined in' the light of the nature, object, and importance' of the marriage contract. It is’entered into with the intent that it shall exist so long as they both shall live, and cannot, as an ordinary contract, be dissolved by- mutual consent. In considering the statement of -'facts as a whole, we are inclined to give great'weight to the findings of the learned' trial judge who saw and observed both parties as they testified from the witness stand. The statement of facts would' seem to reveal that much that he saw, in addition to what he heard, would have great weight in connection with the findings of fact necessary here, and which cannot be- seen, and only vaguely understood from' the written statement of facts before us. Only the husband and wife testified on the'trial. Both were present and faced e-ach other as they testified, one from the witness stand and the other from his or her place by their respective attorneys. Their demeanor' revealed more than their spoken words.

Under the record here, viewed solely from the. written, word, we could conclude either that the acts charged as cr-ugl .treatment were or were not committed;. also, if committed, that they were or were not intolerable or unendurable to the plaintiff. Under all th.e circumstances we find that the acts testified to by appellee and found by the trial court to be true, .sustained the trial court’s finding , their further living together was insupportable, and we approve the trial court’s findings thereon. Point 2 is overruled.

The third point is also overruled. The testimony of both plaintiff and defendant was fully developed in the trial court. Divorce may under such circumstance's be granted- on the sole testimony of one party, although directly controverted by the other spouse. Finn v. Finn, Tex.Civ.App., 195 S.W.2d 679.

Affirmed.