Vitale v. Vitale

BRAY, J.

On the ground of plaintiff’s unsoundness of mind at the time of the marriage plaintiff was granted a judgment annulling it. Defendant appeals, claiming insufficiency of the evidence to support the finding that plaintiff was of unsound mind on the day of the marriage and that on the contrary, the evidence conclusively proves him to have been of sound mind on that day.

Evidence

Defendant correctly states that the degree of mental capacity at the precise time when the marriage is celebrated controls as to its validity or invalidity, and that if a marriage is contracted during a lucid interval the marriage is valid. (See 38 C.J. p. 1288; 55 C.J.S. p. 825.)

Plaintiff is a 56-year-old plumber of Italian parentage. Defendant is a 38-year-old employee of a telephone company. They met in the late summer of 1952 and started going out together. By Christmas plaintiff began proposing marriage. Defendant, because of ill health, refused. In May, 1954, defendant finally accepted and on May 24th they were married in Reno. They returned to plaintiff’s home in Palo Alto and lived together there until June 6th. On that day plaintiff went to a hospital. Defendant learned that he was there as a mental patient, and upon a doctor’s advice, she signed a petition charging him with being mentally unsound. He was transferred to Agnew State Hospital, and after a hearing committed there, where he is still confined.

Plaintiff’s son Prank testified that when plaintiff returned November 2, 1953, from a trip to Europe his father had changed. Prank then related many instances in which his father talked incoherently, had hallucinations, believed that some organization was after him, and that television programs, cards in a drug store and other matters evidenced

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plots against him. In Frank’s opinion his father was of unsound mind. Asked by defendant as to whether in his opinion plaintiff was of unsound mind at all times between November

2,

1953, and the date of the trial, including May 24th, the day of the marriage, Frank replied affirmatively.

Mrs. Tharp, a real estate agent who knew plaintiff well for over 10 years, testified that after returning from Europe plaintiff acted “very odd,” was upset, heard noises, had been “framed” by a woman who was after his money and from whom he was trying to get away (which was untrue), pointed to a dog on a postcard and claimed it was a woman. In her opinion plaintiff was very unsound and confused.