Transcribed Text
SCHOENNAUER v SCHOENNAUER
Opinion Per Crow, C.J. (77 Wash. Dec 1913)
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... thority of the court to make such decree upon the respective property rights, arise from the divorce — the dissolution of the marriage status, — and we think it was appropriately done here, and that the court had jurisdiction to try the cause."
While the case cited adjudicates property rights only, it will be noted that Rem. & Bal. Code, § 989, to which it refers, also provides that the court shall make provision for the guardianship, custody and support and education of minor children. There seems to be no sound reason why the principle announced by this court relative to property rights should not be applied in this case. In Gibson v. Gibson, 18 Wash. 489, 51 Pac. 1041, 40 L. R. A. 587, this court said:
- "The pertinent question and the one question that really affects appellant is the right of the court to enter a judgment against him for the support of the minor child, and the question resolves itself into this: Can a divorced wife bring an action against her former husband for maintenance for a minor child whose custody has been awarded to her? . . . It is a well established rule of law, and, we think, uncontradicted, that the maintenance of children is a matter which the court can adjudicate at different times during the minority of the child."
Again in Ditmar v. Ditmar, 27 Wash. 13, 67 Pac. 353, 91 Am. St. 817, where it appeared that a divorced wife had sued her former husband for expenses incurred by her in the support of their minor children, and also for their future maintenance and education, we sustained a judgment against the father for one-half the amount expended by the mother, and for the payment of a monthly sum in the future, saying:
- "Clearly, the wife has every right, moral and equitable, to be reimbursed to the amount of a just proportion of the expense she has been put to in the performance of a duty which equally belonged to both; and the technical legal reason on which the contrary doctrine is based ought not to be permitted to outweigh the evident justice of her claim. On principle we believe the doctrine of the case from this court [Gibson v. Gibson, supra] to be right, and, though strongly urged to do so, we must decline either to overrule or modify it." ...
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