Palmer v. Palmer

This is an appeal by the plaintiff in an action for divorce instituted by her against the defendant, her husband, alleging acts of cruelty and adultery upon his part.

At the conclusion of the evidence for plaintiff the court directed that judgment be entered in favor of the defendant, from which judgment the plaintiff prosecutes this appeal.

[1] It seems quite clear from the course pursued by the trial judge during the introduction of plaintiff’s evidence, and particularly from his remarks at the conclusion thereof, that he was of the opinion that the plaintiff was seeking a divorce on the single ground of the defendant’s adultery, and that the evidence was insufficient to sustain a decree in her favor upon that ground; whereas in truth her action was also based upon the ground of physical and mental cruelty, which the evidence abundantly established, and, in the absence of evidence on the part of the defendant in contradiction thereof, left the cause in such guise that the action of the trial court in dismissing the suit was erroneous.

The plaintiff and defendant were married in February, 1894, and at the time of the trial there were living as the issue of this marriage four…