Seelye v. Seelye (45 Ill. App. 27, 1892)

Mr. Justtce Lacey.

The appellee filed her bill in chancery against appellant seeking separate maintenance, alleging her marriage to appellant December 11, 1889, and cohabitation with him till October 17, 1890, when she alleges she was compelled to abandon him on account of unkind and inhuman treatment of her, in that he was guilty of extreme and repeated cruelty toward her, so as to render it unsafe for her to live with him. The bill further alleges that he threatened to shoot her during the month of January, 1890, with a pistol, and on divers other occasions threatened- the life of appellee by carving her with a knife.

The bill further charged that appellant was a man of violent passions and ungovernable temper; that on many occasions he addressed to appellee the most opprobrious epithets and threats of personal violence, and has threatened repeatedly to take her life; that in consequence of the cruel and inhuman treatment and threats aforesaid, and such conduct as to render it unsafe for her to live with or near him, that she, on October 17, 1890, left his house and took refuge with her friends, since which time she has not dared to return; that appellee was the owner of property, real and personal, to the amount of $75,000, and hadan income of $5,000 per annum, and that she had no property. Upon answer being filed by appellant denying all the charges, the court submitted the case to a jury to find on the following propositions: First. Was appellee at the time of filing her bill living separate and apart from her husband without her fault ? Second. Was the complainant on the 3d day of Juné, 1891, living separate and apart from her husband without her fault ?

The jury in answer to these questions gave a verdict in the affirmative to both of them. The court then, after denying appellant’s motion to set aside the verdict of the jury and for new trial, granted the relief prayed for, and after hearing evidence touching the station in life of the parties decreed the appellee $30 per month from October 17, 1890, to June 20, 1891, and the same allowance from and after October 29, 1891, until the further order of court, payable quarterly in sums of $90 each, and a further payment of $145 to appellee’s solicitors for their fees in the case, making the decree a lien on appellant’s land. From this decree this appeal is taken.

The appellant contends that admitting the evidence to be true, it does not show cause for the relief granted, i.