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114 Minn. 22

Clark v. Clark

Supreme Court of Minnesota

Decided February 24, 1911

Supreme Court of Minnesota · decided 1911-02-24

Action in the district court for Redwood county for absolute divorce, or if that could not be had for separation and for alimony, or if a separation be not granted, for support out of the property and earnings of defendant, and that plaintiff be awarded a reasonable amount for her support during the pendency of the action.

Relies on Shirey v. Shirey · Stevens v. Stevens · Tumbleson v. Tumbleson

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Reversed and new trial granted · Decided 1911-02-24

How this case has been cited

Cited by 3 later decisions — most recently January 1966

3 state decisions

10191119201930194019501960decided

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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[Jaggard, J.]1

¶1The trial court granted plaintiff, forty-one years of age, a divorce from defendant, who is sixty years of age, on the ground of cruel and inhuman treatment. The parties were married in July, 1906. There is no issue. The court also found that, by reason thereof, plaintiff’s health was seriously injured. Defendant owned real and personal property of the value of $10,000. Plaintiff owned property of the value of $300. Plaintiff had contributed all her separate earnings, an aggregate sum of $400. The court gave plaintiff judgment against defendant for $400, her separate earnings, $100 attorney’s fees, and alimony in the sum of $1,200. This appeal questions the abuse of discretion in the trial court in awarding to plaintiff, so small a proportion of defendant’s property.

¶2In determining whether abuse of discretion is shown, the court of final resort construes the findings of the trial court in the light of the record. To that end we have examined the record in this case. That record abounds in evidence of plaintiff’s lack of sensitiveness, the violation by her of usual courtesies, and reveals much which was evidently in the mind of the court in awarding her so small a sum for alimony. We are also aware that the decisions have tended to sustain trial courts in .their awards of damages, although those awards were very small. See Shirey v. Shirey, 87 Ark. 175, 112 S. W. 369; Stevens v. Stevens, 49 Mich. 504, 13 N. W. 835; Tumbleson v. Tumbleson, 79 Ind. 558; Ensler v. Ensler, 72 Iowa, 159, 33 N. W. 384. None the less we feel constrained to hold, on the facts disclosed, that the award was -not sufficiently large. If, on a new trial, the facts remain the same, *24we are of opinion that an award of $1,800 would not be unreasonable. A new trial of the question of alimony must accordingly be granted.

¶3Per Curiam.

¶4For the reasons given in the foregoing opinion, prepared by the late Justice Jaggard, a new trial is granted upon the issue of alimony.

Lewis, J.

¶5I agree to a new trial, but do not express any opinion as -to the amount the trial court should have allowed.

¶6See per curiam order on page 24.

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