Court Opinion

ID: 9681636
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 07:53:39.7353+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:34.956151
License: Public Domain

OSBORNE, Judge
(dissenting).
Our present statute with regard to what a wife should receive from her husband after a divorce is KRS 403.060. It provides :
“(1) If the wife does not have sufficient estate of her own she may, on a divorce obtained by her, have such allowance out of that of her husband as the court considers equitable; but no such allowance shall divest the husband of the fee simple title to real estate.
*12“(2) Upon final judgment of divorce from the bonds of matrimony, each party shall be restored all the property, not disposed of at the beginning of the action that he or she obtained from or through the other before or during the marriage and in consideration of the marriage.”
“(3) Pending an action for divorce or for divorce from bed and board, the court may allow the wife maintenance.”
This statute is the basis for any property settlement or alimony granted after a divorce. To trace the evolution of this statute one must go back to two statutes, one enacted in 1800, the other in 1809. The 1800 statute was an act concerning alimony. It can be found in 2 Litt. 409. It provided that the court could grant a wife alimony if she proved that her husband had abandoned her for one year, lived in open adultery for six months, or had been guilty of cruel, inhuman and barbarous treatment. After such a decree, the wife could live apart from her husband and could use the alimony or any property afterwards acquired by her as if a femme sole. This statute apparently set up a statutory scheme for divorce a mensa et thoro similar to that granted by the ecclesiastical courts of England. Such decree did not end the marriage, it merely freed the wife to live apart from her husband. Since at common law the wife could have no property of her own, all property which she owned prior to the marriage became her husband’s. This also applied to any property acquired after marriage. A wife apart from her husband was necessarily destitute. For these reasons, the ecclesiastical courts made provisions for the wife in this situation. Such a provision was in the form of alimony, or a periodic sum for support. Madden, Domestic Relations (1931). This apparently was what this statute was intended to provide. Subsequently, the Court of Appeals of Kentucky decided that the courts of the Commonwealth could grant alimony in such a situation without statutory authority, the jurisdiction of the English ecclesiastical courts in this regard having evolved upon the courts of equity. Butler v. Butler, 4 Litt. (14 Ky.) 201 (1823).1
The second of these early statutes is “An Act regulating Divorces in this Commonwealth” passed in 1809 and found at 4 Litt. 19. This provided for divorce a vinculo or divorce from the bonds of matrimony if the defendant spouse were guilty of certain conduct, although it refers to such simply as divorce. It provided that, “The court pronouncing the decree of divorce shall regulate and order the division of estate, real and personal, in such *13way as to them shall seem just and right, having due regard to each party, and the children if any * * Such proceeding as this had no precedent in the English practice. There being no judicial divorce a vinculo in the Common Law, such divorce could only be granted by an act of Parliament. Madden, Domestic Relations (1931). After divorce a vinculo matrimonii, the parties were apparently restored to the property they had before marriage. However, it is not clear under the Common Law that any other division of property was granted. This statute did not require a complete restoration of the wife’s property. See Wilmore v. Wilmore, 15 B.Mon. (54 Ky.) 49(4), wherein, in a divorce action commenced under this Act, it was argued that the wife ought to be restored certain slaves which came to the husband through her. This statute does not speak of alimony or maintenance, and no cases can be found under it granting other than a division of the property of the parties.
In 1850 the Commonwealth adopted a new Constitution. This Constitution called for the legislature to use statute revisors to consolidate the statutes in force and report back to the General Assembly. At this time substantial changes were made in the divorce laws of the state. The compiled statutes were enacted by the General Assembly in 1852. The 1852 enactment is substantially the same act which we have today. It provided for divorce from the bonds of matrimony and divorce from bed and board. Chapter six of the Act provided, “Upon final decree of divorce from the bonds of matrimony, the parties shall be restored such property, not disposed of at the commencement of the suit, as either obtained from or through the other before or during the marriage, in consideration or by reason thereof; and if the wife have not sufficient estate of her own, she may, on a divorce obtained by her, have such allowances out of that of her husband as shall be deemed equitable.” This Act seems to speak only in terms of restoration of property and a property settlement and not to contemplate periodic alimony as such. In light of the Common Law history and the previous statutory history in this state, there seems to be little doubt but that this was the intent of the legislature. Alimony or periodic support had historically only been allowed to supplant the husband’s obligation to support his wife during the marriage or after divorce a mensa et thoro, which did not end the marital relationship. Since this obligation to support did not exist after a divorce a vinculo matrimonii, it seems doubtful that the legislature intended to apply it here. For a considerable time after this piece of legis-. lation was enacted our courts interpreted the alimony provision as referring only to a property settlement and did not interpret it as a grant of power to award alimony. This rule was first departed from in Canine v. Canine, Ky., 16 S.W. 367 (1891). In this case the court held that the wife could be granted support by way of periodic payments where the husband did not have an estate at the time of the divorce out of which a lump-sum payment could be made. When we consider the historic background of the legislative Act, it would appear that this case added something to the law which had not previously existed and which has been with us since.
The next case decided by this court with great historical significance as far as alimony is concerned was Davis v. Davis, 86 Ky. 32, 4 S.W. 822 (1887). Even though the Act provided that the wife was entitled to alimony only upon divorce being granted to her, the court held that where the chancellor obviously abused his discretion and wrongfully granted the divorce to the husband this could not work to bar the wife from alimony even though this court had no power to reverse the divorce decree.
The next case to come before the court of historical significance was Tilton v. Tilton, 29 S.W. 290 (1895). Here the court held that where the wife is granted *14the divorce, alimony should follow as a matter of right, saying, “We understand the rule to be that, in an action for divorce, the right to alimony will follow, if the wife is granted the divorce.” Here the court completely overlooked the fact that the right of the wife under the Act is conditioned on her lack of sufficient estate of her own.
As a result of the above three cases, it would seem that the court substantially amended the legislative Act by first adding periodic payments in lieu of a lump-sum settlement. Second, by authorizing alimony where the divorce had been granted to the husband if the chancellor was clearly erroneous in this action. Third, by authorizing alimony where the wife is granted the divorce even though she might have sufficient estate of her own. It is submitted that up to this point in our history no great damage had been done to the Act itself. Even though one would have to admit that the Davis case constituted a substantial amendment to the Act, it seems to be one that was necessary in order to prevent a manifest injustice in view of the fact that this court cannot reverse a trial court in the granting of a divorce decree.
The Canine case constituted an extension of the law if one gives strict construction to the Act, however, it can be allowed that the Act did encompass alimony, if one views the husband’s estate as including his earning power. Granted this is a result never before reached by our courts it nevertheless is not totally unreasonable.
Following the above cases, the court in a long series of decisions wherein alimony and property rights were before it seems to have been confused as to the exact nature of the award being made. The court would approve an award of a certain sum of money, and attempt to justify its action by talking in terms of the wife’s dower interest or of her future need for living expenses or of the contributions which she had made toward the accumulation of her husband’s estate either in the form of labor or money.
Because of confusion as to the nature of the award being made and by extending the rules originated in the Tilton, Davis and Canine cases, the court became more lax in its awards of alimony and paid less and less attention to the provisions of the Act itself. All of this culminated in 1961 in Heustis v. Heustis, Ky., 346 S.W.2d 778. Here the husband was granted a divorce and apparently properly so, which under the Act would have barred the wife from alimony unless this court under Davis could say that the trial court abused its discretion in awarding the husband the divorce. The wife had made no contribution to the husband’s estate either through work or funds which would entitle her to an equitable distribution out of it. Yet, this court awarded alimony equal to one-third of the husband’s estate. In the course of the opinion, we said:
“That a wife who makes the home, raises the children, gives succor and moral support to the husband and aids him in the saving and investment of his money, but who does not directly convert any individual effort or earnings into the form of property, in the event of divorce has no interest in the property accumulated through the husband’s earnings during the marriage is a travesty made tolerable only by the judicial power to correct it in the form of alimony.
“ * * * Where the wife has fullj performed her share of the response bilities during the substantial portion ol her married life with the husband and has not brought on the divorce by moral delinquency, and the husband is not entirely free of fault, we are of the opinion that alimony should be in an amount not less than one-third of the estate accumulated from the income of the husband during the marriage (as distinct from whatever portion of his estate maj have been derived from independent sources), unless, of course, she has a sufficient estate of her own or unless there are other unusual circumstances rendering such a division inequitable.”
*15The Heustis case is so completely in conflict with the statute as to make the two irreconcilable.2
At this point it might be well to clear up some terminology which is often loosely used by the court. There is a clear and distinct difference between an award of alimony to a wife and the award of an equitable settlement out of the husband’s estate due her as a result of contributions she has made to the accumulation of the estate either through the contribution of work or personal funds. For these distinctions see 24 Am.Jur.2d, § 525, Alimony distinguished from dower or from wife’s equity, p. 650-1.
“The function of alimony is merely to make provision for the support of the wife during the lifetime of the husband. After his death there is no longer any necessity for its allowance at common law for, as the ecclesiastical courts did not grant an absolute divorce for causes that supervened the marriage, but only one a mensa et thoro, the marriage relation was still preserved and as the widow she then came into the enjoyment of her dower rights. * * * “Since alimony is based upon the duty of the husband to support his wife, the funds wherewith it is to be paid must proceed from his own estate; and if he has nothing and is unable to obtain anything wherewith it may be paid, it must remain unpaid.
* * * “There is another type of ‘wife’s equity,’ which is based on her contributions during marriage to the husband’s acquisition of property, a recognition of which is in the nature of a settlement of property rights.”
See also 24 Am.Jur.2d § 928, p. 1057, Type of Property, or time and manner of acquisition:
“One spouse may have a special equitable interest in property held in the other’s name, which interest may arise in many ways, and the court may award a share of the property representing such special interest in it. For instance, it is held that where a wife by her own industry and labor has contributed to the husband’s acquisition of an estate, she has an equitable interest which must be recognized by a division of property. And where the wife has contributed money toward the purchase or improvement of the family home she has an equitable interest in the property measured by the amount she has spent, especially where the parties have treated her contribution as a loan to be repaid by the husband.”
The Heustis case cannot be justified as an equitable distribution of the husband’s estate under any known rules of law. The award had to be one for alimony and in view of the fact that our statute requires that the divorce be granted to the wife before she is entitled to alimony, it seems impossible that this result could be reached when the husband was awarded the divorce. Many different jurisdictions have in their alimony statutes the same requirements as ours requiring that before the wife is entitled to alimony she must be awarded the divorce. We alone of all jurisdictions have failed to give effect to this requirement. As a result, we have been subjected to some rather harsh observations by the compilers of the American Law Reports Annotated. See 35 A.L.R.2d 318 wherein the general rule for all other jurisdictions is set out and then a special section added for the holdings of the Kentucky Court of Appeals:
“In Kentucky there are nearly one hundred reported cases on the present sub*16ject, and the alimony statute provides that if the wife does not have a sufficient estate of her own, she may, on a divorce obtained by her, have such allowance out of that of her husband as shall be deemed equitable. Clearly this statute is such as to deprive the courts of the power to award alimony to a wife against whom a divorce is granted if the statute is construed in accord with the prevailing view in other jurisdictions; and in partial accord with that view it is variously held or stated that where the husband is properly granted a divorce because of the wife’s misconduct or fault she is not entitled to permanent alimony, or that she will not be allowed alimony, that the trial court properly denied or should have denied alimony, or that where the wife’s treatment of the husband was so cruel as to entitle him to a divorce it prevented her from securing alimony.” (Emphasis added).
34 A.L.R.2d 324, p. 324:
“In Kentucky there is a remarkable series of nearly one hundred decisions which ordinarily achieve a just result, but leave one in doubt as to the basis of the holdings. In only a few cases does the court attempt to construe a statute or find a nonstatutory solution to the problem; and the court often discusses the equitableness of a particular determination on the assumption that the statutes permit or do not prevent it from reaching an equitable result. The statute in effect when most of the cases herein were decided provided that if a wife does not have a sufficient estate of her own, she may, on a divorce obtained by her, have such allowance out of that of her husband as shall be deemed equitable. Clearly this statute is such as to deprive the court of the power to award alimony to a wife against whom a divorce is granted if it is construed in accord with the holdings in other states which have similar provisions.” (Emphasis added).
Such comments as the foregoing are somewhat embarrassing to those of us who would see the law enforced as it is written rather than to try cases on a case to case basis and pervert the law to satisfy our own peculiar sense of justice. To demonstrate how far we have actually come from the statutory authority I would point out some of the language used by this court in Carter v. Carter, Ky., 382 S.W.2d 400 (1964), wherein we said:
“From a strictly literal standpoint KRS 403.060 confers a right to alimony only when the wife obtains (or, of course, is entitled to) the divorce. However, divorce proceedings are equitable actions in this state (KRS 403.010), and equity is broader than the statute. Hence it is well settled that even when the husband is solely entitled to and obtains a divorce the wife may and in some cases should be awarded alimony.”
This statement of the law is so obviously wrong as to be shocking, for the very simple reason that there is no Common Law right to divorce whether equitable or otherwise. The right to grant a divorce is one that has always been and is legislative. Without KRS 403.010 there would be no right of divorce in this jurisdiction today, and this court would have no power whatsoever in the field. As the total power to permit divorce is in the legislative arm of the government it can grant or withhold it at will and, if it grants it, it can grant it with such restrictions as it sees fit. A fine example of how we are prone to misinterpret cases and to pervert the law to suit our own whim and caprice can be found between the cases of Carter v. Carter, supra, and Coleman v. Coleman, Ky., 269 S.W.2d 730 (1954). The Carter opinion wherein we boldly state that our power is much greater than that of the legislature cites the Coleman case for authority. Yet in the Coleman case we said:
“But this whole subject is governed by statute and it is the duty of the courts to follow the legislative enactment.”
I submit that the Coleman case is no authority at all for the expressions made in *17the Carter case. To further point out how inconsistent we have been, compare the language of the Heustis case with the following language from Hicks v. Hicks, 290 S.W.2d 483 (Ky.1956):
“The Chancellor in determining the amount and manner of the alimony to be paid is guided by no formula but, in his discretion, should consider the following elements with respect to each party: size of estate, income, earning capacity, age, ability to labor, health, and station in life. The cause of the divorce and the relative responsibility of the parties, as well as whether or not the wife has assisted in the accumulation of the property concerned, should also be considered along with any other pertinent matter.”
To further point up the confusion and inconsistency just five months before the Heustis case was decided in Goetz v. Goetz, 341 S.W.2d 249 (Ky.1960), this court said:
“It is apparent from our cases that the comparative fault of the parties is one of the major considerations in determining the right to and the amount of alimony. See Scalf v. Scalf, Ky., 312 S.W.2d 467.” (Emphasis added).
Many other glaring inconsistencies can be found in our cases. To point them all out would extend this dissent beyond any bearable length. The law of this jurisdiction relative to the rights of a wife to alimony is what the legislature has enacted. Nothing more, nothing less. The fact of the matter is that within the framework of judicial discretion this court constitutionally has the power to interpret that law in order to make it serve its intended function. This court has no right, it has never had a right, to change or alter so much as one period or one comma in the legislative act. It is a weakness of our system of government that erroneous judicial decisions are enforced once they become final the same as proper ones and even though the Act says in unambiguous terms that a wife is not entitled to alimony unless she is granted the divorce, we are nevertheless free to make alimony awards when the divorce is granted to the husband and these will be enforced. However, they are not the law; they will never be the law and a thousand years from now they will prove nothing but the fact that a court in this day and age had a right to ignore the plain, simple law and decide cases out of its bounds. As far as I know it has never been questioned and will never be questioned but what the right to grant divorce is a power of the state. It can bestow it or it can withhold it. In England this was done through Parliament and not until the statute of 20 and 21 Viet. (1857, chapter 55), entitled “An Act to Amend the Law Relating to Divorce and Matrimony Causes in England,” were the courts of England given any jurisdiction at all in the field. 2 Burn.Eccl.Law 202; Macq.Parl.Pr. 470. In the early history of this Commonwealth prior to our first divorce act in 1800, divorces were granted on an individual basis by the legislature. This being true, the legislature could put such restrictions upon the subject as it saw fit. Having enacted KRS 403.-060, we are bound by its terms and have no right to depart therefrom. The fact that this Act has been subjected to long judicial abuse does not make it any less the law. Russman v. Luckett, Ky., 391 S.W.2d 694. It is the law and it will remain the law upon this subject until the legislature changes it. Ten thousand judicial opinions saying otherwise will not make it less so. Courts can’t change the law with erroneous opinions. The law will always be there. And the judicial opinions will only serve as a monument to the failure of the court system. They will never become a tombstone to a dead law.
I believe this court has no choice but to uphold this statute as it is written, with this addition that where a trial court clearly abuses its discretion in awarding the divorce to the husband and such can be found from the record, without doubt, we should consent to an award of alimony under the Davis case, supra, for I feel that case represents a proper exercise of judicial author*18ity. We should continue making an equitable distribution to the wife where she is entitled to it because of labor or funds contributed to the husband’s estate, because it does not appear this in any way conflicts with the statute. We should likewise follow the Canine opinion, supra, to the extent of allowing the wife alimony out of the husband’s future earnings where he has no estate of his own out of which a lump sum might be paid in instances where she has been awarded the divorce and is clearly entitled to such alimony. I believe this rule to have doubtful historical validity but I cannot say positively that the court was wrong in its adoption. In my opinion, it is now a part of our law. The decision of when a wife has sufficient estate of her own is one that will have to be made by the Chancellor on a case to case basis. Therefore, it is not possible to set down an exact rule that will work in all future cases. Unless a wife is entitled to alimony under the foregoing rules, we should deny it. This may run afoul of some people’s idea of instant justice. This cannot be helped. If the people who must live under this law are not satisfied with it, their duly elected representatives will surely change it. And, when that change comes, we should move to enforce the changes just as faithfully as we enforce this Act.
In the case before us, the husband was granted the divorce because of abandonment by the wife. There seems to be no question but what this finding of the Chancellor was correct, therefore, she is not entitled to alimony. However, the husband has agreed to pay alimony in a stipulated amount. This should be approved.
Judges live and write for the moment; the law goes on forever. Judges can and do nurture, guide and enforce the law. Within the framework of construction a judge legitimately can, and oftentimes must, make a choice between two competing rules as they apply to a given set of facts. But, just as we have no right to take a blue pencil to the compiled acts of the legislature and strike therefrom those acts which do not suit our fancy, we cannot by the course of our opinions refuse' to give effect to perfectly valid enactments. This is the equivalent of a veto power over legislation, which we do not have.
For the foregoing reasons, I dissent.
NEIKIRK, J., joins in this dissent.

. There seems to be some confusion in our case law to the effect that the right to grant alimony existed under the common law. Nothing could be further from the truth. The ecclesiastical courts made such awards in granting decrees a mensa et thoro, but no such power ever existed in the chancery courts and without statutory authority never existed where divorce a vinculo matrimonii was granted.
In the Butler opinion, Judge Miles discusses this problem as follows:
“On this question, elementary writers place the power of decreeing alimony, in general terms, among the powers of the chancellor. But when the adjudged cases are examined, it is found that generally some peculiar circumstances must exist to authorize such decree. Thus, it is said, that there must be an agreement between the parties that alimony should be allowed, or a previous sentence of an ecclesiastical court, separating the parties a mensa et thoro, from which an agreement would be implied, or the chancellor would not interfere; that is, he would not take the matter ab origine, settle the separation and grant alimony. As to decreeing a separation, it seems clear that the power was never considered in England to belong to the chancellor; but to the ecclesiastical courts. And it has been the clear understanding since the commencement of our government, in every state, so far as is known to the court, that no power of granting divorces, either a mensa et thoro, or a vinculo matrimonii, existed in any tribunal until it was granted by legislative authority and that the marriage contract without such grant, could not be annulled, either in whole or in part.” Butler v. Butler, 14 Ky. 201, 4 Litt. 201, p. 203.

. For a blow-by-blow account of wliat happened between Davis and Heustis see the following cases: Lacey v. Lacey, 95 Ky. 110, 23 S.W. 673 (1893); Tilton v. Tilton, Ky., 29 S.W. 290 (1895); Pore v. Pore, Ky., 50 S.W. 681, 20 Ky.Law Rep. 1980 (1899); Green v. Green, 152 Ky. 486, 153 S.W. 775 (1913); Moore v. Moore, 231 Ky. 829, 22 S.W.2d 251 (1929); Baker v. Baker, 271 Ky. 735, 113 S.W.2d 16 (1938); Hayes v. Hayes, 275 Ky. 273, 121 S.W.2d 698 (1938); Luke v. Luke, 276 Ky. 683, 125 S.W.2d 251 (1939); Sharp v. Sharp, 302 Ky. 426, 194 S.W.2d 835 (1946); Coleman v. Coleman, Ky., 269 S.W.2d 730 (1954).