Antrim v. Antrim

Parke, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. On the 12th of March, 1935, a decree by the Circuit Court of Baltimore City was passed, granting a devorce a mensa et thoro to William L. Antrim, Jr., plaintiff, from Helen Antrim, defendant, on the ground of desertion. The appeal of the wife was taken on the ground that the evidence did not justify the decree. The spouses are young.

They were married on February 6th, 1932, and separated on July 6th, 1934. They have no children. The bill of complaint was filed on January 15th, 1935. The wife left her husband and returned to the home of her foster parents, Mortimer West and his wife.

He contends that she had no cause, and she asserts it was because of his harsh and brutal treatment and of his failure to support her. At the time of the wedding, the husband, who is a musician, was an orchestra leader, but did not have sufficient means to provide a home for his wife. The couple went to live at the home of Mortimer West, in Baltimore, ⁴²⁰ and, except for an interval of about two weeks, remained there, almost wholly supported by the wife’s parents, until March, 1934, when the wife left to visit relatives in Richmond. She and her husband were desirous of having their own home, and she informed her husband that she would come when he had obtained an apartment.

He borrowed money for the rent from his wife’s father, and leased an apartment, and his wife returned and they began housekeeping in March. When he rented the apartment, he was unemployed, but later became a service attendant in a gasoline station, in two weeks an interior decorator, and, in a month’s time, an employee of a department store, where he is at work. In addition, he had employment at night as a leader of an orchestra. His wife, also, obtained employment in a department store across the street from where her husband had his position.

The husband’s testimony is that differences of opinion arose between himself and his wife over her being at work in a competitive store, and being absent during the time when telephone calls would be made to engage his services at night as a musician. He furthermore testified that she 'believed that she should have the right to go out in the evenings when he was away to fill his engagements on Saturday night as a musician, and that he did not object at first, as he usually returned about half past one in the morning and would find his wife at home. After three weeks she came in after two o’clock, and then three o’clock, and then one morning she came home with some friends at a quarter to four and was rather intoxicated. The next morning the husband remonstrated with her for coming in so late, but told her that he did not object to her returning at a normal hour.

These differences, according to the husband, caused her to leave. His cross-examination, however, developed that the immediate cause of the wife’s departure grew out of an invitation to the couple to dine at the home of the wife’s father. The husband had accepted the invitation, but when he went for his wife in his automobile, he informed ⁴²¹ her that he was not feeling well, and that she would have to go alone, and that he would take her and later call for her. The wife said she would not go, but would return to their home and get the dinner.

She did this, and the husband resented her cooking an ample meal when he was not well enough to eat it. He attributed her action to spite, and she thought he was selfish in not going to dine after her mother had prepared the meal. These differences resulted in the wife packing her things and leaving her home at about half past eight in the evening. The husband stated that he requested her not to go, but, when she insisted on going, he drove her to her father’s home. in his examination, the husband denied that he had been cruel to his wife or that he had ever been guilty of any act of violence.

The husband is not corroborated in his narrative of the quarrel on the night of the separation, nor in his assertion that his marital conduct had been free of violence. The wife contradicts him in material details of their quarrel at the apartment. He and she were the only persons present on this occasion, and, so, both are without other witnesses to substantiate their respective versions of what happened. The wife, however, does have corroboration of an act of violence of her husband both before and after their separation.

The testimony of the wife with respect to their married life before they parted is better stated at this point. It is to the effect that for two years after their wedding, with the exception of about two weeks, she a,nd her husband lived as guests at her parents’ home. During this period, her husband was unable to provide his wife with a home or to support her. Their dependent position made the wife dissatisfied, and when she returned from her visit to Richmond to occupy the apartment which he had rented with money borrowed from her father, the wife took a position and the husband obtained one, and they lived together in an unhappy state.

The wife charges that the husband was petulant, quarrelsome, and threatening. While at the home of her par ⁴²² ents, during a quarrel, at an early stage of their married life, the husband picked the wife up and threw her a short distance across a narrow room against a cupboard. She is corroborated in this charge by her mother, who, in an adjoining room, heard the noise of the impact of her body with the cupboard. Their differences and conduct were not sufficient to cause her to sever her marital relations, until their quarrel in the apartment over the invitation to dine at the home of the parents.

The wife’s account is of an angry scene, whose climax was an advance by the husband upon the wife with a threat to wring her neck. The wife defied him, and he came close, but did not touch her. After this episode, she began to gather her clothes. He assisted her and took her home.

Before she got into the automobile, she stated he said: “Now, you know if you leave this house, you are not going to get back here again,” and her reply was: “If I leave this house I won’t want to come back again, I have had just about all I can take.” At this stage there does not appear any substantial foundation at law for their separation. A spirit of conciliation on the part of the husband accompanied by a firm and reasonable assertion of his marital authority might have induced the wife to abandon her purpose to leave, because she drew, from his actions, the conclusion that he was pleased to get rid of her, as he had told her to go ahead when she started to pack her clothes and had started to put them in, saying she had forgotten them; and because, on their way, the husband had stopped the automobile, and had inquired if the wife had changed her mind and her reply was that she had not, that he had let her out of the house, and that she was going to continue. The wife’s testimony of her husband’s actions was not sufficient to justify her departure with the resolution to end the cohabitation. Singewald v. Singewald 165 Md. 136, 147 , 166 A. 441 .

On the other hand, what she said and did in their quarrel was in anger and in haste, and, therefore, it would be unreasonable to take her actions ⁴²³ and declarations when done and made under such circumstances as sufficient evidence of a desertion, unless there would be further testimony that she had resolved to end the cohabitation, without the consent of the husband. The additional testimony on the part of the husband is that the wife continued to live at her father’s home, without the resumption of the marital relation, although he maintained the apartment until the following Thanksgiving, and endeavored to get her to return, but that she declined, and stated to him that the breach was final, because she did not believe they could get along together, and that it would be better for them to remain apart. In the early part of July, the husband invoked the aid of the mother, who saw his sister and arranged for a visit of the wife to the sister for the purpose of effecting a reconciliation. He, also, wrote two letters to his wife.

In the first, a short note, he sent her fifteen dollars. He produced the second, whose envelope was postmarked July 18th. After this letter, which was affectionate in tenor, and expressed the sentiment that “I don’t ever expect to stop trying until you and I are together and happy,” the husband’s wife and sister met, and, after the visit in New Jersey, the sister wrote on July 30th to her brother. She testified in the case and said that she could not induce the wife to promise to return to her husband.

It was after the receipt of the sister’s letter that the husband wrote a last letter, whose envelope was postmarked September 9th, 1934. He offered it in evidence. The letter is quite long and its substance is to place the responsibility for the continued separation on the wife; to submit a modus vivendi which, without a resumption of cohabitation or resuming their marital relation, contemplated an association in social enjoyment to ascertain whether or not they should desire to resume their relations, and “then after a reasonable time, if we don’t feel any different its time to take whatever steps are necessary to part us forever.” The wife wrote no reply, although one was requested, ⁴²⁴ but soon called her husband by telephone and, according to his account, stated that she was going to leave town, and inquired if he would give her a divorce. His reply was that he did not wish a divorce, and, with a view to their reconciliation, suggested that he call for her at the store in the afternoon in his automobile and take her to dine so that they could have a talk.

They met and, while -he was driving out of town on the Reisterstown Road, another quarrel occurred. Antrim’s version is that his wife inquired if he would give her a divorce, and his reply was that he did not know how she could then get a divorce, but that they could discuss the matter at dinner. His wife declined' to go any further because she had to go back to keep an engagement. Antrim was provoked by this information, turned the car around, and took her to her father’s home where they met Mrs. West.

Antrim testified that he told Mrs. West that he was convinced there would be no reconciliation, and said that he was perfectly willing to do anything they wanted to do. He continued in these words: “She wants a divorce and I cannot do anything else about it. I don’t want it,” and Helen says, “I want the divorce and I will give you all the grounds that are necessary,” and I said, “You can stand on your head and I won’t divorce you.” The wife’s testimony is in conflict in material particulars with reference to this ride in an automobile. Her evidence is that ten