Summary
involving statutes with express provisions against more than one motion for punishment
Summary of this case from Johnson v. JohnsonOpinion
March 24, 1910.
Harry A. Gordon, for the appellant.
Abraham H. Sarasohn, for the respondent.
Appeal from order staying all proceedings on the part of defendant. The action was begun October 2, 1908, for a separation. Defendant answered denying the allegations of the complaint and counterclaiming for a separation on his part. On October 29, 1908, an order was made directing defendant to pay forty dollars counsel fee and six dollars per week alimony. He paid a part of the counsel fee and paid alimony until January 25, 1909, when he ceased paying. On March 30, 1909, defendant was adjudged guilty of contempt and sentenced to imprisonment. He remained in jail until July 1, 1909, when he was discharged under section 111 of the Code of Civil Procedure, having served three months. The action is on the calendar and has been called twice, having been put over each time on account of plaintiff's condition of health. On January 26, 1910, by permission of the court, defendant served an amended answer containing a second counterclaim in which he prayed an annulment of the marriage on account of plaintiff's insanity at the time it was contracted.
Under section 111 of the Code, defendant, having served the statutory period in jail for non-payment of alimony, cannot be rearrested even for alimony subsequently accruing. ( Winton v. Winton, 53 Hun, 4; affd., 117 N.Y. 623.) The plaintiff, however, is entitled to pursue any other remedy, even to stay affirmative action on defendant's part in the case. ( Sibley v. Sibley, 76 App. Div. 132; Harney v. Harney, 110 id. 20.) He may not, however, even for a contempt be deprived of an opportunity to defend himself against plaintiff's attack. ( Hovey v. Elliott, 167 U.S. 409.)
The order was, therefore, properly granted assuming, as we do, that its only effect is to restrain defendant from taking any step to enforce his counterclaims, leaving him free to meet and contest any attempt on the part of plaintiff to enforce the cause of action set forth in her complaint. To resolve any doubt there may be as to the construction of the order it may be so modified as to limit its effect to proceeding on the part of defendant to enforce the counterclaims set forth in his amended answer, and as so modified affirmed, with ten dollars costs and disbursements to respondent.
INGRAHAM, P.J., CLARKE and MILLER, JJ., concurred; LAUGHLIN, J., dissented.
The questions presented for decision on this appeal are whether in an action for separation which is based on the marriage contract the defendant, who is in contempt of court for failing to obey an order for the payment of alimony, may be stayed or should be stayed from offering proof of a counterclaim duly and timely pleaded for an annulment of the marriage. Quite likely such a counterclaim is not authorized ( Taylor v. Taylor, 25 Misc. Rep. 566; affd., without opinion, 68 App. Div. 638; Conrad v. Conrad, 124 id. 780), but the Court of Appeals has not yet passed upon that question and the defendant should be left in a position to raise it by offering his evidence upon the trial. The order was not made upon the theory that the counterclaim was not authorized, and manifestly that question cannot be thus raised. The order appears to have been made in recognition of the validity of the counterclaim, and no question with respect to the right of defendant to interpose the counterclaim was raised at Special Term or has been raised on appeal. I allude to it merely to show that I am not expressing an opinion on that question. I have been unable to find any case in which it has been expressly decided that due process of law requires not only that a party shall be heard in direct defense of any charge made against him, but that he shall be permitted also to prove an affirmative defense. It is, however, contrary to the spirit of our institutions to allow judgment to be entered against a party without hearing him on an affirmative defense duly pleaded which, if established, would defeat the plaintiff's cause of action. So in the case at bar, assuming, as we must for the purpose of this appeal, that the counterclaim is properly pleaded, then the plaintiff is seeking to enforce rights under a contract which the defendant, if he should be able to establish his counterclaim is entitled to have canceled. Of course the court may refuse to hear a party in contempt on an affirmative application by him, but the court cannot administer justice by hearing only one side of a case, nor can it refuse to hear any evidence relating to facts duly pleaded tending to defeat the plaintiff's cause of action merely because the defendant is in contempt of court. ( Hovey v. Elliott, 167 U.S. 409, 444; Sibley v. Sibley, 76 App. Div. 132; Harney v. Harney, 110 id. 20.) If the marriage were procured by fraud the plaintiff could enforce the contract, and any right arising therefrom until it is annulled by a decree of a court of competent jurisdiction. The decision of the majority of the court on this appeal would permit the party who perpetrated the fraud to enjoy the fruits of her contract and aid her by a decree in so doing indefinitely, turning a deaf car to the affirmative defense.
I am of opinion, therefore, that neither the Special Term nor this court can lawfully make an order which permits the plaintiff to move the trial of the cause, and precludes the defendant from being heard upon or offering evidence to sustain his counterclaim, and that if authority so to do were vested in the court, it should not have been so exercised.
I, therefore, vote to modify the order so that it will merely stay affirmative action by the defendant in moving the cause for trial or making any application to the court herein other than in defense of any step or proceeding taken by the plaintiff.
Order modified as directed in opinion and as modified affirmed, with ten dollars costs and disbursements to respondent. Settle order on notice.