Hughes v. Hughes

Henderson, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. This appeal is from a decree of the Circuit Court No. 2 of Baltimore City, dismissing a bill for divorce filed by a husband on the ground of voluntary separation, and awarding permanent alimony of $15.00 per week to the wife, on her amended cross-bill, which alleged adultery and desertion, but did not pray a divorce. The case is somewhat unusual, in that the husband seeks a reversal on the ground that he is entitled to a divorce on the evidence presented, but does not contest the allowance or amount of alimony. At the conclusion of the testimony on January 14, 1957, the Chancellor, in an oral opinion, held that a voluntary separation had not been proven, and that in any event the husband was not entitled to a divorce because of his admitted adultery, applying the doctrine of recrimination.

How-ever, when our decision in Matysek v. Matysek, 212 Md. 44 , holding that recrimination is not a defense in a suit for divorce on the ground of voluntary separation, was handed down a few days later, the Chancellor granted a petition for rehearing. After hearing, he declined to modify the decree, on the ground that there was insufficient corroboration to establish a voluntary separation. The testimony is scanty, but virtually uncontradicted. The parties were married in 1915, and one child was born in 1916, ⁴⁵⁴ a daughter, now Mrs. Richard • Weekly.

The parties separated in September, 1926, when living on Roland Avenue in Baltimore City. The husband testified that they could not get along together, so they came to an agreement, whereby she was to stay in the house and keep the child, and he would pay $11.00 a week for the child’s support. He paid this until the child was eighteen. “She told me she didn’t care what I done, for me to go my way and she would go her’s.” She told him “She didn’t want anything for herself.” In the last thirty years, she had never asked him for anything. One cause of their disagreement was that she was “running around” with other men and once “I caught her out in a car with another man.” On cross-examination, he admitted he had been living in Catonsville since 1941 with a Mrs. Noreen Kroner, in a house, title to which is in the names of Samuel Hughes and Noreen K. Hughes, as tenants by the entireties.

He admitted that he and Mrs. Kroner had had a number of children, some of whom are married. The oldest of these children was born in 1927, but the date of birth was not established. He had never been married to anyone except the appellee. The appellee had objected to his seeing Noreen Kroner before their separation in 1926.

When they separated he took his clothes. “She helped me pack my clothes.” He took her the $11.00 a week himself, sometimes he sent it by a friend, Mr. Marr. He earns $60.00 a week, “take home” pay. Mr. Edwin Marr testified he was a frequent visitor to the Hughes home when the parties were living together. He worked with Mr. Hughes as an automobile mechanic’s helper. “We worked shifts.

One would stay on one night, and one would the next night. * * * whichever was on, the other one would go to his house and his wife would pack a lunch for us. * * * I was there one night and she said she was tired of fooling around and wished one would go one way and the other, the other. I think they finally made an agreement. I went with him when he got his clothes. * * * They said they were going to separate, one going one way and one the other.” This was in the fall of 1926. Afterwards, he frequently took money to her to pay for the daughter, generally $11.00.

She often told him “All she wanted was support for the child. She ⁴⁵⁵ didn’t want nothing from him. * * * She said she was getting along good like she was, going her way”, and^ “she didn’t want nothing to do with him.” On cross-examination, he admitted she had made some