Wilson v. Wilson

DORAN, J. The action herein is one for divorce and the appeal is from that portion of a judgment which decreed that a certain limited partnership known as Tri-Color Laboratories was “fictitious, invalid, void and non-existent and of no force and effect,” and that appellant Anna E. Wilson, the husband’s mother and nominally a limited partner therein, “does not have, own or hold any right, title or interest in or to any of the community property” of the husband and wife, including said partnership.

The appeal by the husband and the husband’s mother is, according to appellants’ brief, “predicated on the basis that there was no evidence to substantiate the findings of fact . . . , that these findings do not substantiate the conclusions of law, and that there is no evidence to substantiate that portion of the judgment heretofore mentioned.”

The record discloses evidence to the effect that Doris and James Gordon Wilson were married December 31, 1933, at which time Mr. Wilson was president of Harmonizing Cartoon Studios, and Doris Wilson was employed by RKO Theatre Corporation which latter employment continued for about a year after the marriage. During 1937 Mr. Wilson’s mother, the appellant Anna E. Wilson, and James A. Wilson, James Gordon Wilson’s father, came from New Mexico for a visit, and continued to live with the junior Wilson for some years; the senior Wilson remaining for 11 years until death, and Anna E. Wilson remaining for four years, thereafter living with a daughter, the defendant Doris Seligman. During this period the senior Wilson was only employed for short intermittent periods, and Anna E. Wilson was not gainfully employed during the four-year residence with the junior Wilsons. According to plaintiff’s testimony, the elder Wilsons [55]“never had any money. They have never been able to even take care of themselves except for intermittent periods when Pop (Wilson, Sr.) worked, which was a very short period out of his life when I knew him.”

In January, 1940, appellant James Gordon Wilson organized Color Prints, Inc., acted as president thereof, and owned 15 per cent of the stock. This business was not particularly profitable. In 1945, Wilson organized Tri-Color Laboratories as a sole proprietorship to take advantage of a new Printon color process, for which venture Doris Wilson’s mother, Mrs. Ora Kimball, advanced $21,000. Initially Mrs. Kimball was to have a one-half interest in Tri-Color; later on, two postdated notes were given Mrs. Kimball for this amount, which notes are still outstanding although some payments thereon have been made.