The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-10-08
COURT 0VERRULES
 FEALy'S DEMURRER Major Obear Wins First Skirmish Taking of Tes-
 timony Begins Today

The three cornered legal contest be- tween Maj. William Gray Obear, Mrs. Legare II. Obear, his wife, and Lawrence A.. Fealy, bishop of the Altrurian so- ciety, came up for another hearing in the chancery division of the circuit court before Judge Hugh A.. Locke yesterday.
 The arguments of counsel took up the whole days session, starting abou. ld o'clock in the morning and ending about o'clock 1T the afternoon. The case will be continued this morning at 9:3o o'clock.
 The day was spent arguing on demur- Ter filed by Fealy as a reply to bill of complaint previously filed by Major Obear against him. Obear had charged Fea.y with using hypnotic influences over Mrs. Obear, thus inducing her to squander about $2G,000 of her inheritance and sep arate estate while her husband was away from home serving in the army Obear fur ther complained that result of these alleged sinister influences exerted by Fealy tat his wife had turned him ort of her home, even refusing to allow him to see his three little children.
 Obear therefore. asked the court to issue m order restraining Fealy from visiting Mrs. Obear, and on the other hand forbdding her from paying visits to Fealy5 office in the Farley building. Obear also asked that the court appoint
 
 estate. alleging that her mental condition was such that she could not properly run her own affairs.
 FEALY FILES DEMURRER
 Fealy icing made joint respondent with Mrs. Obear, replied to this bill of complaint with lengthly demurrer l: was lthis demurrer that took up ths courts time yesterday. It was overruied and thrown out of court as worthless.
 .I~ with Mrs. Obear, in the complaint filed by her tasband, on the grounds that it was none of his affair, that he. Fealy. had notniag to do with their private do- mestic affairs. It went much further, however, and stated that Mrs Obeaf could spend her own money as she pleased. as it was her own separate estate and she owed nothing to her husband. It also brought to the courts notice the fact that 1t was alleged that Mrs. Obear was not in a normal state of mind and if this were true the proper court to hear the case would be the probate court. :;s- sisted by q jury.
 All of these points weer overruled and Gibson and Davis, the attorneys for Fealy, were given until tomorrow morn ing to prepare an answer to the com plaint.
 TWENTY WITNESSES IN CASE
 There will be about 20 witnesses in the case and the taking of their testimony will commence today. As this is chan cery case there will be no jury Witnesses will be under the rule during the case. that is cn'y the one testifying will he in the court room, the others not hearing what testimony is given.
 Counsel for Obear are Judge. s. D Weakley, William S. Coburn and F. $ Address. They would not state what wit
 l>c xA. ,tx1<r
 Yesterdays demurrer has no effect on the staiis of the case and today's hear ings will proceed as if no other reply had been made. Yesterdays action was siru- ply an attempt to have the whole case thrown ort of court without trial of the facts. Its failure makes today's hear ing necessary.