Miller v. Miller

Offutt, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. Archie Guy Miller and A. Virginia Miller, both of Annapolis, appellant and appellee respectively, were married in 1913, and, except for short periods, lived together until August, 1931, when they separated, and from that time they have lived apart. On March 13th, 1939, Mrs. Miller filed the bill in this case against her husband, praying an absolute divorce and temporary and permanent alimony, on the ground of abandonment. Miller filed a cross-bill against her, praying an absolute divorce on the ground that the parties had voluntarily lived apart for five years, and that the separation was final and beyond hope of reconciliation.

Miller answered the bill and denied that he had deserted his wife, and she answered the cross-bill and denied that the separation was voluntary. At the conclusion of the trial the court, in its decree passed on October 6th, 1939, dismissed the cross-bill, granted an absolute divorce to the wife, and awarded her alimony at the rate of fifty dollars a month accounting from March 15th, 1939, allowing the husband to pay the alimony in arrears in monthly instalments of twenty-five dollars. From that decree the husband appealed. Both parties agree that they should be divorced, but they differ as to the ground for that relief. ¹⁴ The wife contends that the husband left their common home against her will and her wish and has since continued to live apart from her, that he left with the intention of terminating finally the marriage relation, that there was no just cause or reason for his desertion and that the separation is beyond any • reasonable hope or expectation of reconciliation.

The husband contends on the other hand that they separated and have been living apart voluntarily and by common consent, but concedes that the separation is final and beyond any reasonable expectation of reconciliation. So that the issue is, Was the separation voluntary as to both, or involuntary as to her ? Briefly, the facts of the case are these: Miller is a postman, and has been in the postal service for thirty-one years. In that position he receives 82,100 a year less 8 per cent and he also receives 8125 a year as secretary of a fraternal organization.

His wife is a seamstress and dress maker, and at one time conducted a dress shop, and after it failed continued to work as she was able as a seamstress. They have two children, one, Oliver, now twenty-five years of age, is married and self supporting, the other, Marian, is employed in Washington and is also self supporting. Mrs. Miller seems to have been an industrious, faithful, wife and mother, she said that until the separation she loved her husband, and there is nothing in the record to cast doubt on the sincerity of her statement. She helped to educate their children by her own labor, she was tolerant of her husband’s faults, and appears to have made an earnest effort to keep the little family together.

Miller is an honest, sincere, man with an impossible disposition, and a capricious temper. He contributed liberally, as his means permitted, to the support of his wife and family, he went in debt to open the dress shop for his wife,, there is nothing in the record to show that he was unkind to his children, but for some undisclosed reason there was for years more or less bickering and ¹⁵ quarreling between him and his wife. He left the home on two occasions prior to the final separation and returned each time at his wife’s solicitation, but the record is silent as to why he left, and as to the circumstances under which he left. In August, 1931, Oliver was some sixteen or seventeen years of age.

He had a friend, a midshipman, Morris Burton Brown, whom he had met at Sunday School, Brown was interested in the Boy Scout movement, and apparently enjoyed helping children. Oliver asked his mother whether he might bring Brown to their home, she gave Mm permission to do so, and from, that time Brown was a not infrequent visitor at the home, not infrequently remained overnight, and indeed staid there for considerable periods of time. It does not appear that Brown knew that his visits were unwelcome to Miller, Miller said nothing to him about it, he appears to have been interested in the children and occasionally helped Marian, then about eleven or twelve years old, with her lessons. For some obscure reason Miller took a violent dislike to Brown, and while it does not appear that he said anything to him directly, he did take out his displeasure at his presence in the home on Mrs. Miller.

On one occasion, on a Sunday morning, while Miller and his wife were in bed, Brown, who slept with Oliver, passed the door on Ms way down stairs, and Ms wife, so Miller said, waved her hand to Brown as he passed the open door. Her gesture offended Miller, he upbraided her, and an altercation followed. The parties differ in their statements of what followed that incident. Mrs. Miller said that on one Sunday night her husband came home while she was asleep in bed, and without any warning kicked her out of bed and struck her, and that similar occurrences had happened many times before, that on the following morning he apologized, and she told him she had reached “the end” of her rope and could not continue living that way.

She then gave this testimony: ¹⁶ “Q. How many times were you separated? A. Two others. Q. What were the causes of the last separation ? A. Well,- Mr. Miller had really treated me very cruelly at this particular time, and I realized from that moment I could not go on living with him even though I wanted to.

I just realized I couldn’t. Q. Could you state what the cruelty was? A. Yes. He came home and, as I remember, he kicked me out "of bed and then hit me.

The next morning, for the first and only time in all our married life, he said he was sorry for anything he did to me. Q. Had this happened before? A. Oh, many times. Q. Did he give any reason for kicking and hitting you ?

A. He had been accusing me of a great many things that were absolutely untrue. Q. Did he accuse you at that time? A. That night when he came home I was asleep, and he kicked me out of bed without saying anything. Q. What time of night was it?

A; I really don’t know. I was asleep when he came in. * * * Q. Then this had happened before? A. Oh, many times. The following Wednesday he moved to the Elks Club, and that was the last separation.

Q. He moved from where? A. 203 Main Street to the Elks’ Club. Q. Then he stayed in the house from Sunday until Wednesday? Q. Did he tell you he was going?

A. Yes, he told me he was going. As I remember correctly, he said we can’t go on this way, the sooner he left the better. Q. Has he ever since that time attempted to make any reconciliation? A. No. Q. Has he ever been back to your house since that time?

A. No. He never has been back and I wouldn’t ask him to come back, because on other occasions it was through my persuasion that Mr. Miller returned home the other two times. Q. And you felt it best not to approach him this time? A. I did.” Miller’s version is different. He said that one night, some time after the Sunday morning on which he had seen his wife wave to Brown, he and she were in bed, and that following an altercation concerning that incident he pushed her from the bed with his foot.

He testified: ¹⁷ “Then she finally admitted to me that she did wave her hand and gave me some intangible reply as to why she did it which did not meet with my approval whatsoever, and in the end the whole thing resulted in my taking my foot and pushing her out of bed, and I may have said ‘Get to hell out of my bed.’ * * * Q. Were you ever guilty of any brutality toward your wife? A. Well, if it may be, in consideration of that question, it would be possible, depends on what you call ‘brutality.’ If pushing her out of bed with my foot is ‘brutality,’ then I was brutal to her. Q. That was the extent of your actions against her? A. That’s right. * * * Q. You testified you took your foot and pushed your wife out of bed.

Is that right? A. Yes. Q. You heard your sister testify on the stand? A. I did.

Q. How do you think your wife got those bruises ? A. It may have been when she fell to the floor she may have struck something. Q. Was your kick strong enough to make her fall to the floor? A. She went out of bed.

Q. You did not hit her? A. I did not hit her with my hand or my fist, if — . Q. If she got those bruises she got them from other sources? A. I did not say that, I said she might have gotten them from falling on the floor, or it may have been caused by my pushing her from the bed.” Oliver, the son, went in the room while his mother and father were both there, and he said he could see that she had been hit, and that before he went in he had heard an argument.

Marian said that she was awakened by the “commotion,” and that the next morning she saw that her mother’s arm was bruised. Caroline Elizabeth Duvall, Mrs. Miller’s sister, testified: “Well, that morning when I went in the store — I was helping my sister in the store at the time — she was a sight to be seen. Her eye was black, her arms were blue. I asked what in the world had happened, and that’s when she burst out and told me.

She had a huge bruise on her leg that couldn’t be seen by the world, but the eye and the arm could, most assuredly.” ¹⁸ Miller testified that after the occurrence “I did not want that man in my home any more, I wanted her to get rid of him, I did not trust him, I did not want him there; my daughter was eleven and a half years old and he was running around in his pajamas, he had his own suit there, he came in and changed his clothes and made use of my home same as his own. I did not trust him in my home and I told her so, and I wanted to be rid of him. She insisted he was not her guest, — he was not mine — I did not know him until I met him in my home, I told her to get rid of him, and I would give her ten days to get rid of him, in which to make up her mind he would not come back to my home again. * * * On the occasion when I told Mrs. Miller I would give her ten days in which to forbid this man to return to my house, if he returned again I would