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107 Ind. 197

Simons v. Simons

Indiana Supreme Court

Decided June 25, 1886

Indiana Supreme Court · decided 1886-06-25

<p>Divorce.—Interrogatories to Party not Proper.—Case Followed.—Interrogatories to the parties are not proper in an action for a divorce. Ban' v. Barr, 31 Ind. 240, followed.</p> <p>Same.—Alimony.—Discretion of Trial Gourt.—It is only where there is an • abuse of discretion that the Supreme Court will review the decision of the trial court as to the amount of alimony.</p>

Relies on Evans v. Evans · Powell v. Powell · Barr v. Barr

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1886-06-25

How this case has been cited

Cited by 4 later decisions — most recently May 1935

4 state decisions

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Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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Elliott, J.

¶1The appellant instituted this suit for the purpose of obtaining a divorce from the appellee. A decree granting him a divorce was rendered, but it was also decreed that'he should pay the appellee as alimony the sum of six hundred dollars.

¶2The trial court refused to require the appellee to answer interrogatories propounded to her by the appellant, and of this ruling complaint is made, but, as we think, unsuccessfully. It is true that our late decisions declare that suits for divorce are to be regarded to a very great extent as ordinary civil actions. Evans v. Evans, 105 Ind. 204. But it is also true that these decisions hold that where special provisions are contained in the statute regulating proceedings in divorce cases, they will govern, although different from the rules *198which obtain in ordinary civil actions. Powell v. Powell, 104 Ind. 18. Our judgment is that so far, at least, as coneoerns the method of procuring and presenting evidence, there are such provisions in the statute as make it improper to use .interrogatories to the parties. It is our conclusion that the decision in Barr v. Barr, 31 Ind. 240, governs this case and forbids the employment of interrogatories.

Filed June 25, 1886.

¶3The question as to the amount of alimony is one for the ■decision of the trial court, and it is only where there is an abuse of discretion that this court will revise that decision. "We can not say that there was any abuse of discretion in this instance.

¶4Judgment affirmed.

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