Wilson v. Wilson

GRIFFIN, J.

Plaintiff and appellant commenced this action against defendant and respondent alleging certain acts of claimed physical cruelty, sought a divorce, custody of the five minor children, and the community property. Defendant answered, filed a cross-complaint, alleged extreme cruelty,

[642]

and sought reciprocal relief. Six children were born of this marriage. The oldest, at the time of the beginning of this action, was 21 years of age, and married. The youngest was seven years of age.

The main difficulty between the parties grew out of plaintiff’s association with an organization known as “Jehovah’s Witnesses,” and defendant’s opposition to her membership in it and her conduct in connection therewith, particularly with reference to her distributing literature on the streets of various towns in Imperial Valley, and the influence her conduct and beliefs had upon defendant and the minor children.

The action proceeded to trial. At the conclusion thereof the court denied plaintiff relief on her complaint, awarded the defendant a decree upon his cross-complaint and gave the custody of all of the unmarried children to him and awarded the small amount of community property to the defendant for the benefit of the said minor children. The other provisions of the decree are unimportant to this appeal. It is from the exercise of the trial court’s discretion in finding for the defendant and cross-complainant as to the above matters that plaintiff has appealed.

It is not feasible to set out in this opinion all of the evidence in the case. A great portion of it consists of many exhibits in reference to the literature of the organization of which plaintiff was a member. We will, however, attempt to set out sufficient evidence to indicate what the trial court had before it to consider in support of its findings.

Plaintiff argues that the evidence of her activities in connection with the Jehovah’s Witnesses was not such that she should be found to be an unfit or improper person to have custody of the children, nor was it such conduct as would constitute a ground for divorce based upon cruelty. Defendant takes a contrary view. Her argument was rejected and defendant’s view was shared by the trial court.