Peretti v. Peretti

LORIGAN, J.

Defendant in an action against her for divorce on the ground of desertion was personally served with summons and suffered default. The plaintiff thereafter brought the action on for hearing, and presented the evidence on his part, which was brief. The court denied a divorce, and entered judgment accordingly. Plaintiff moved for a new trial, which was denied, and he appeals both from the judgment and the order denying said motion.

Appellant insists that the conclusion of the court is not sustained by the evidence; to the contrary, he claims that under it the court should have granted an interlocutory decree of divorce in his favor.

This action was brought in September, 1911. Summarizing the testimony: the plaintiff himself testified that he and de

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fendant were married in 1904, had no children of their marriage and accumulated no community property. They lived together in a house in Los Angeles rented by him and in which his wife still resides. In June, 1910, he left his wife and took up his residence elsewhere in the city. As the reason for leaving he stated that they had some quarrels, but their nature is not disclosed; probably about money, as he stated that he delivered his pay checks to his wife, who would “cash the checks and pay the money to everybody and what little money is left she would put in the. bank and just took care of herself.” After he left his wife he passed their former residence daily, saw her nearly every day, but never spoke to her. Some two weeks after he left he sent his daughter by a former marriage and two other persons to have her take him back, but she refused; that he had a friend write letters to her in his behalf in which he offered to return, but she would not let him. As an excuse for not going to see her personally, he said that if he went she would “take an axe and cut my head”; that the offers he made to return to her were made in good faith.

Two witnesses, eoemployees of the plaintiff in the Pacific Electric Company, testified that at the request of plaintiff they called twice on defendant and asked her to become reconciled to him and live with him, but she refused to do so. A third witness testified that at the request of plaintiff he wrote a couple of letters to the defendant making a similar request for him, and that in answer to them defendant wrote saying she did not like plaintiff any more; that she had better stay alone. The daughter who was living in the household when plaintiff left his wife, and who accompanied her father, stated that at his request she called on defendant and made a similar request that plaintiff be permitted to return, but she refused to agree to it; that on several other occasions she spoke to the defendant on the same subject, who answered that she did not want to go back to live with him. This amounts to the principal evidence produced by plaintiff at the hearing.