## Facts

- Marilyn Elizabeth Hughes (wife) and Clifford Carey Hughes (husband) were married and lived together in Winn Parish, Louisiana.
- In April 1974, the wife filed suit in the Eighth Judicial District Court seeking a separation from bed and board based on the husband’s cruel treatment.
- In her pleadings and testimony, the wife alleged the husband treated her coldly and indifferently, was habitually intemperate, was verbally abusive, and had threatened physical violence, including an incident in which he ordered her from the home and threatened to do her bodily harm.
- The parties separated after the earlier incident, then reconciled in November 1972 when the wife returned to the marital domicile after the husband promised to correct his behavior.
- About one month after the reconciliation, the wife testified that the husband’s abusive conduct resumed, including cursing and threats, and that the situation again became intolerable.
- On December 18, 1973, the wife left the marital domicile permanently and later pursued the separation action.
- The husband denied the wife’s allegations and filed a reconventional demand seeking a separation in his favor, alleging the wife left without cause and thus abandoned the marital domicile.
- The parties’ only child, a daughter who was a college student during the relevant period, testified and corroborated the wife’s account of continuing discord and the husband’s abusive language; the trial judge relied heavily on this testimony to resolve the conflicting accounts.

## Issues

1. Whether the evidence was sufficient to support the trial court’s finding that the husband committed cruel treatment after the parties’ November 1972 reconciliation, warranting a separation from bed and board.
2. Whether the wife’s departure from the marital domicile on December 18, 1973, constituted abandonment supporting the husband’s reconventional demand, or was justified by the husband’s fault.
3. Whether the trial court’s credibility-based factual findings were manifestly erroneous so as to require reversal on appeal.

## Decision

- The Louisiana Court of Appeal, Second Circuit, affirmed the judgment granting the wife a separation from bed and board on the ground of cruel treatment.
- The court held the record supported the trial court’s conclusion that the husband’s abusive conduct continued after reconciliation, based on the wife’s testimony as corroborated by the daughter.
- The court rejected the husband’s reconventional demand for separation based on abandonment because the wife’s departure was not “without cause” if the husband’s cruel treatment justified leaving.
- Applying a deferential standard to credibility calls and fact findings, the court found no manifest error and declined to disturb the trial court’s resolution of conflicting testimony.
- The court stated it would discuss the parties’ marital difficulties in as little detail as possible while still addressing the legal sufficiency of the evidence.

## Legal Principles

- Cruel treatment can be shown by a course of conduct such as habitual intemperance, persistent cursing, and threats of physical harm when it makes continued cohabitation insupportable.
- Reconciliation does not bar a spouse from obtaining a separation when the evidence shows the offending spouse resumed or continued cruel treatment after the reconciliation.
- A spouse who leaves the marital domicile for cause—because of the other spouse’s fault—does not commit legal abandonment, defeating an abandonment-based reconventional demand.
- Appellate review of domestic-relations judgments that turn on credibility and fact finding is limited; absent manifest error, the trial court’s determinations will be upheld.
- Corroborating testimony from another witness may support the spouse seeking separation where the parties’ testimony conflicts.

## Conclusion

The Second Circuit affirmed a separation from bed and board for the wife because the trial court reasonably found, based on the wife’s testimony and the daughter’s corroboration, that the husband resumed verbal abuse, intemperance, and threats after reconciliation, constituting cruel treatment; because the wife left for cause, her departure was not abandonment, and the appellate court would not overturn the trial judge’s credibility-based findings absent manifest error.


Hughes v. Hughes, 326 So. 2d 877 (1976)