UNUSUAL TURN IN DIVORCE PROCEEDINGS

Chronicle (Levin), 12 July 1947, Page 3

UNUSUAL TURN IN DIVORCE PROCEEDINGS

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CHRISTCHURCH, July 9. After lieai'ing evidonee in the Supreuie Court ou a petition for divoree, Mr. Justico Fleming was asked to de- j cide whether the fact that a husband and wife iived in the same house for i 10 days while the wife was out of a 1 niental liospital on probation, aft'ected ; the separation agreement on whieli the 1 petition was based. I lt was stated in evidence that peti- j tioner (the husband) and respondent wero niarried on January 16, 1941. A few months later respondent had a niental breakdown and was in a niental hospital for a month. On Oetober 2, : 1941, after tliey had been working on a farm as a niarried eouplc, petitioner and his wife signed agreement to separate, respondent was admitted to a j. mental hospital in February, 1942.- On I January 24,, 1943, respondent was'giveu.j' leave on probation from the hospital | and petitioner: ; was told to take her | away. He took'her to where he was then living and tliey lived in the same house for 10 days whon his wife had a furtlier niental lapse and was taken back to hospital. The liusbaLud petitioned for divoree 011 the grounds of agreement to separate. The questions raised were whether the wife's committal to a niental hospital alfeeted the operation of the agreement, whether respondent was of sufficient niental staliility to understand her aetion in signing the agreement., and whether the fact that petitioner and respondent lived together in oue house while respondent was on leave from the niental hospital, alfeeted the separation agreement. "These cases are sometimes difficult to decide but in the present case I am of thc opinion that the wife, wlien slie entered into the agreement, underwood its nature and effoct and it is binding on her," said his Honour. "While it is true that some three or four months after signing the agreement the wife' was admitted to a mental hospital, her progress towards insanity has been graduai. Evcn after she had been admitted there her conduct was not very bad for she was releascd on probation to go with hor husband. That is a common proceeding with patients in mental hospitals. I feel that where a husband and wife have separated by mutual agreement and the wife is taken ill and the husband, scnt for, did ail he eould for her comfort and had nurses in the liome to look after her, he was only doing what every decent man would do and it doe3 not end the agreement. The same thing happened here and I do not intend to penalise petitioner for doing the deeent thing. There was 110 resumption of relationsliip of husband and wife. The wife understood the nature of the agreement entered intp and I hold that the agreement is good and the incident did not rescind it. The agreement having continued in force for three years, the petitioner is entitled to a decree nisi to be made absolute on the expiry of three months," said his Hononr.