H and W were married in June 1961, and ceased living together as husband and wife in February 1986. They have three children, all of whom live at home with W. Their daughter, Kicha, is 22 years old and a student at the University of Houston; their older son, Mark, is 21 years old and a student at Rice University; and their younger son, Marlon, is 17 years old and a student at St. John's High School in Houston. H is a licensed physician in private practice specializing in internal medicine, and W is a health educator for the City of Houston. By H's own admission, he could not recall exactly how many extramarital affairs he had during his marriage, the names of all the persons with whom he had affairs, or how much money he had spent on his various sexual activities. H estimated that during the last several years of his marriage, he had taken some $5,700 in cash receipts each year for his own use and that he had taken cash out of the business from the time he first began his practice in the mid-1960s. H admitted that he had never accounted to W for the money he had taken and that on one occasion he told W she would never know how much he had taken from the business. On one occasion, H failed to report $47,000 in come to the federal government for taxes. After a non-jury trial, the court made a monetary award to W in the amount of $30,000 as actual damages and $5,000 as exemplary damages. H appealed.

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