Willey v. Willey (1921) · DecisionDepot

Willey v. Willey

Name: California Superior Court Tentative Rulings
Creator: DecisionDepot
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

California Court of Appeal Jan 20, 1921 No. Civ. No. 3745.Published

Before: Richards

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Holding. The court held that a trial court has the authority to award alimony in an interlocutory decree of divorce based on the pleadings and proofs, even if the prayer for relief in the complaint specifically requested only temporary alimony.

Issues

Whether a trial court is limited by the specific prayer for 'temporary alimony' in a complaint when awarding alimony in an interlocutory decree.
Whether the trial court possessed the authority under the Civil Code to require the defendant to pay alimony based on the findings of the case.

Disposition. affirmed

Quotations verified verbatim against the opinion

“The issues in cases of this character are made by the pleadings taken as a whole, and these show the plaintiff to be entitled to alimony from the defendant if the averments of her complaint were supported by the proofs in the case.”

Synopsis

The facts are stated in the opinion of the court.

[125]

RICHARDS, J.

This is an appeal upon the judgment-roll from a portion of an interlocutory decree in an action for divorce. The complaint in said action is in two counts, one founded upon the charge of desertion, and the other upon the defendant’s willful failure to provide for plaintiff the common necessaries of life. In this latter count of her complaint the plaintiff alleges that the defendant has for a long time been employed in various positions in which he has been receiving salaries amounting to two hundred dollars or more a month; that the plaintiff has no means whatever and is in such physical condition as to render it impossible for her to accept employment of any kind so as to properly support herself or prosecute this action; that the sum of seventy-five dollars a month is a reasonable sum for temporary alimony, and certain other sums are reasonable for attorney’s fees and costs. The prayer of her complaint is for divorce, and it embraces the further prayer for an order of court that the defendant “pay to the plaintiff the sum of seventy-five dollars per month as temporary alimony pending the trial of this action,” and certain other sums for attorney’s fees and costs.

The defendant’s answer by specific denials puts in issue the foregoing averments of the plaintiff’s complaint, and he also presents a cross-complaint containing specifications of alleged cruelty on the part of the plaintiff, and praying for a divorce on his part. To this the plaintiff answered with specific denials, and in her said answer prayed for general equitable relief.

A trial ensued, at the conclusion of which the court made its findings in plaintiff’s favor on both counts of her complaint, and thereupon entered its interlocutory decree in the following form:

“Wlierefore, it is ordered, adjudged and decreed that the said plaintiff is entitled to a divorce from defendant; that when one year shall have expired after the entry of this interlocutory judgment a final judgment and decree shall be entered granting a divorce herein, wherein and whereby the bonds of matrimony heretofore existing between said plaintiff and said defendant shall be dissolved, and at that time the court shall grant such other and

[126]

Willey v. Willey

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Synopsis

RICHARDS, J.

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