Williams v. Williams

Henderson, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. A husband appeals from a decree awarding his wife a divorce a mensa on the ground of desertion, and custody of an infant daughter to the wife. The husband being in the military service and having made an allotment for his wife and child, the court reserved for future determination the question of alimony and support. The only question presented is whether the evidence supports the finding of the court.

The parties were married March 10, 1956, at Chestertown, ⁵⁷¹ where both their families reside. She was twenty-one years old, he was twenty-seven, and had served in the Air Force for some years as an air-borne radio operator, stationed at Dover, Delaware. His duties required that he be absent on test flights from time to time for periods of several weeks at a time. After a brief honeymoon they occupied a third floor apartment in Chestertown.

There were some altercations concerning the way she kept the apartment. She became pregnant, and about August 1, they moved to the home of her parents, to be with her mother during his absences, and to avoid the necessity of climbing stairs in her condition, apparently on her doctor’s advice. He asked her to return to the apartment, but she refused. She appears to have had crying spells and they quarrelled frequently over rather trivial matters.

About August 25, he persuaded her mother to accompany him on a visit to the wife’s doctor, who had been attending her because of her pregnancy but had not examined her for the past three weeks. The husband suggested that his wife ought to see a psychiatrist. According to the mother’s account, she defended her daughter’s emotional outbursts on the ground of her pregnancy, and fainted when the doctor suggested that her daughter be sent to Sheppard-Pratt Hospital. The news of this episode, which the wife described as an attempt to commit her, aroused her indignation and that of her father.

The husband left the home and has never returned. The wife consulted another doctor, who assured her that her mental condition was normal, and attended her until the birth of her daughter on December 5, 1956. She filed suit for divorce on September 5, 1956, but this was subsequently dismissed. During October and November, the husband and wife met