A Divorce, a Vanished Lawyer, and a Plot to Hide the Property
Ella J. Nance says her husband and his brother conspired to put their community property beyond her reach—and her attorney has disappeared with her fee.
WOES OF MARRIED LIFE. One Wife Wants Community Property—Another Gone to Her Mother.
Ella J. Nance, who is suing for a divorce from Thomas H. Nance, yesterday moved the superior court for an order dismissing Dan W. Thurston and substituting Corliss A. Southard as her attorneys. She claims to have employed Thurston February 1 to procure the divorce and certain property in King and Mason counties, now in the name and possession of Nance and his brother William. Mrs. Nance agreeing to pay all costs and to give the attorney a contingent fee in the property recovered. She says she paid Thurston $10 to cover costs, but that for the past four weeks she has been unable to find him and believes he has left the city with the intention of never returning. Since beginning the action she has given birth to a female child. She has learned that her husband and his brother have conspired to put the property in the latter's name, so as to put it beyond her reach, and she asks leave to file an amended complaint making William M. Nance a party to the suit.
In the action for divorce of Louise K. Dignan vs. James S. Dignan, the latter yesterday filed an affidavit to the effect that prior to the commencement of the suit Mrs. Dignan deserted him and took up her residence in New Jersey, where she now resides, and that both prior and subsequent to such abandonment she declared her intention never to return to him or again live with him as his wife. When she was about to leave this city, Dignan says, she wrote to him a letter, saying: 'I am going home to mamma, and stay with her till I die; I presume that will be forever.'
William T. Thomas was yesterday granted a divorce by Judge Humes from Elizabeth A. Thomas. They were married in this city August 29, 1895.
“She has learned that her husband and his brother have conspired to put the property in the latter's name, so as to put it beyond her reach.”
Then as now, divorce fights often turn on hidden assets and legal maneuverings. Ella Nance's 1896 case shows how a determined spouse could be left scrambling when the other side played dirty.
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