Bradford v. Bradford

WARD, J. Several appeals are involved herein resulting from the filing of divorce proceedings. A property settlement was executed by Mauvia and Lowell Bradford which provided a total payment of $1,800 in satisfaction of prior orders of the court directing monthly payments, including the sum of $300 designated as attorney’s fees and court costs in the pending proceeding. The property settlement further provided that no modification of its terms should be sought unless required by changed conditions. An interlocutory decree of divorce on the ground of extreme cruelty thereafter was rendered and entered in favor of plaintiff wife and against defendant husband. Defendant did not testify. The decree set forth “that the property settlement agreement entered into between the parties and bearing date September 30, 1947, which said agreement is on file herein, be, and it is hereby approved, except as to the provisions therein contained for child support, child custody and costs and attorney fees; . . . that, defendant pay to plaintiff the sum of Twenty Dollars ($20.00) per month as and for the support and maintenance of plaintiff beginning on the first day of December, 1947, and continuing in monthly installments on the first day of each and every month thereafter to and including September 1, 1951, or until the remarriage of plaintiff, whichever is sooner; . . .” The decree further provided for the payment by defendant of $80 per month “until the remarriage of plaintiff or the first day of October, 1951, whichever occurs sooner,” and thereafter the sum of $100 per month for the maintenance and support of the two minor children. Each child was named in a separate paragraph of the decree. The decree ordering the foregoing payments was made in November, 1947, and was signed in the following February. Defendant husband appeals from the judgment rendered and entered in June, 1948, wherein the terms of the decree were modified in favor of plaintiff wife. This appeal is presented on a settled statement in lieu of a reporter’s transcript.

[923]The affidavit submitted by plaintiff in support of a motion to modify the decree substantially sets forth facts similar to the evidence produced at the proceedings had in June, 1948. The statement on appeal from the order of modification gives detailed facts in narrative form and therefore is reproduced, as follows: “Upon the testimony of the plaintiff and the testimony of the defendant after consideration of the property settlement agreement and the interlocutory decree of divorce, the following facts appeared. Plaintiff testified as follows: That $80.00 per month is not sufficient for the support of said children and she estimates the cost of such support as follows: Food $40.00, rent $14.00, utilities $14.00, milk $13.00, medicines $10.00, clothes $10.00, nursery school $23.00, didy service $7.00 (only for the younger child), cleaning $3.00, miscellaneous $5.00, haircuts (only for the elder child) $4.00, music lessons which she desires to start (only for the elder child) $4.00. She did testify that the cost for the support of said children had increased. She testified that her estimate of the cost of support and maintenance of the children at the time [of] the agreement of September 30, 1947 was in error. She is living with her mother to whom she pays $20. per month rent. Defendant testified as follows: That he was a student at the University of California until June, 1947, at which time he was employed as a criminologist by the State of California; that he worked at such employment until December, 1947, at which time he accepted employment as a criminologist in the office of the District Attorney of Santa Clara County, and that he is now employed in said office at a monthly salary of $350, less deductions, totaling $32.80, leaving a net salary in the sum of $317.20 per month, which increased his income. That in addition to said salary he has income on account of disability payments from the U. S. Government in the net amount of $35. per month, which amount has not changed during any of the period hereinabove referred to. That he has no other income from any source whatsoever. That out of said total net earnings of $352 per month, he pays $100 per month to Mrs. Bradford pursuant to interlocutory decree of divorce dated February 11, 1948, and $100 per month to holder of his promissory note in the sum of $1800 which defendant borrowed for Mrs. Bradford and paid to her pursuant to the provisions of said property settlement agreement, which payments will continue until April, 1949, leaving a net of $152 per month for his support