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207 Ala. 533

93 So 457

White v. White

Supreme Court of Alabama

Decided May 18, 1922

Supreme Court of Alabama · decided 1922-05-18

Relies on Lawson v. Mobile Electric Co. · Brassell v. Brassell · Lockhart v. City of Troy

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1922-05-18

How this case has been cited

Cited by 11 later decisions — most recently October 1950

11 state decisions

501922193019401950decided

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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GARDNER, J.

¶1 Appellant filed this bill against the appellee seeking divorce upon the ground of adultery and cruelty. The cause was heard before the court on oral testimony, and the final decree was rendered against the complainant dismissing her bill; and from this decree the appeal is prosecuted.

¶2 There was no note of testimony, and counsel for appellant largely rest their contention for reversal of this cause upon the lack of such note of testimony, as required by chancery rule 75, as construed by the previous decisions of this court. Brassell v. Brassell, 205 Ala. 201, 87 South. 347; Lunday v. Jones, 204 Ala. 320, 85 South. 411. The writer’s disagreement with the construction of this rule in the foregoing authorities was fully stated in Lunday v. Jones, supra, and he now considers the question as finally established. The effect of the holding is that, upon such final submission, in the absence of a note of testimony, there is in fact no evidence before the court to be considered. It results, therefore, in the instant case, that the submission was had from a legal standpoint upon the bill and answer.

¶3 The answer specifically denied and contradicted in all material respects the aver-ments of the bill, and required strict proof of the allegations set up as grounds for divorce. This placed upon the complainant the burden oí sustaining by proof the allegations of her bill sufficient to overcome the contradictions of the answer. Scott, Adm’r, v. Brassell, 132 Ala. 660, 32 South. 694; Latham v. Staples, 46 Ala. 462; Lockhart v. City of Troy, 48 Ala. 579. In Scott v. Brassell, supra, in speaking j>f this question, the court said:

“An unsworn answer when it contradicts the averments of the bill, is mere pleading, and is entitled to no more weight as evidence than the bill, but it is required still, that the allegations of the bill be sustained by proof sufficient to overcome the contradictions of the answer.”

¶4 Under such circumstance the proper decree to he rendered is one dismissing the bill.

¶5 Rule 75, therefore, as construed by this court, and as applicable to the instant case, *534 leaves the submission oí appellant’s cause as upon bill and answer, and the decree dismissing the bill will therefore be' here affirmed.

¶6 Affirmed.

ANDERSON, C. J., and SAYRE and MILLER, JJ., concur.
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