Kapneck v. Kapneck

Henderson, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. In this divorce case the Chancellor found the husband guilty of adultery and awarded a divorce a vinculo to the wife, and the custody of two children, aged six and seven. The only questions raised on appeal concern the amount of alimony and support and the amount of counsel fee. The Chancellor awarded $1,250 a month, apportioned at $250 per month to the wife and $500 a month each to the children.

The counsel fee allowed to the wife’s solicitors was $7,500, over and above a fee of $2,000 they had already received from other sources. The appellant is an appliance salesman employed by a corporation owned or controlled by his father. It appears that the parents of both the parties are well to do, and the husband’s father appeared to be unusually lavish in his contributions to his son, a generosity that seems to have abated to some extent because of the son’s conduct. Prior to the marital rift, the son received a salary of $2,000 gross per month.

Since July, 1963, he has received $1,000 per month. The auditor for the corporation testified that he was instructed by the president (the father) to cut the salary of the son (the vice-president) because “he wasn’t working as much because of all this disturbance,” and that certain loans and advances made by the corporation were repaid by the son, amounting to some $30,000. It appeared that the corporation had a “net profit before payment of salaries” of only $70,000, although the gross business of the company was about $1,000,000 a year. At the time of trial the husband had a net worth of about