Opinion ID: 2615683
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Oregon Business

Text: The record relating to the Oregon business of the defendant (Tualatin Valley Nurseries of Sherwood, Oregon), claimed by Elwert to have been abandoned when he left for Idaho, is, indeed, a revealing one and under the permissible criteria of domicil weighs heavily in our conclusions. It assumes added persuasiveness when viewed in the light of and in contrast to his Idaho business hereinafter discussed. At the time Elwert left for Idaho, he had put more than 32 years of hard labor and experience into the Sherwood business. It had grown to a point where, to use defendant's own words, he was in 1948 growing more than a half million fruit trees each year, besides importing and growing several million bulbs, plants and vines annually   . A large part of its business was on a mail-order basis with an operating field far beyond the boundaries of Oregon. Elwert was the manager. Mrs. Elwert worked in the office, typed letters and orders, received and opened the mail and attended to all banking. They employed not fewer than 20 persons at all times and at certain seasons as many as 50 to 60. Their major assets consisted of 15 separate parcels of real property and 6 other parcels upon which they paid taxes. They were the owners of 8 motor vehicles: trucks, pickups, a jeep and a Chrysler sedan, besides the Lincoln which Mr. Elwert had with him in Idaho. Their properties were unencumbered and upon inquiry  from the court, Elwert advised they were worth from $150,000 to $200,000. He later corrected this to $125,000 as a more conservative figure. The operation grossed $200,000 in 1946 and more than that amount in 1947. According to Elwert, they paid income taxes in 1947 of [$]50,000 or [$]40,000. The income in 1948, although less than the years of 1946 and 1947, netted a profit of $27,000 before taxes. With vague and evasive testimony, Elwert would have us believe that he spent but little time in Oregon during the vital jurisdictional period in Idaho, that is, between the date of his arrival there on October 18, 1948, and the date of the filing of his divorce complaint on December 18, 1948. The record disputes him beyond a shadow of a doubt. We find that nearly every week end during that time, he was at the nursery making out weekly payroll checks for the employees. We are also persuaded by the record that on such occasions he remained in Sherwood from 4 to 5 days at a time. On this basis it can be shown that the greater part of his first two-months' residence in Idaho was spent in Oregon in the furtherance of his business here. Elwert told the Idaho court he remained in Oregon only from two to three days on each of his trips back to this state. Moreover, while in Oregon he addressed himself to usual matters of management, including the obtaining of trees to fill orders taken by him in Idaho. On one occasion he dug up 800 trees for that purpose.