THE RIGHTS OF A MOTHER-IN-LAW

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 434, 17 February 1909, Page 3

THE RIGHTS OF A MOTHER-IN-LAW

In. the Now' Jersey Supreme .Court Judge Stevenson, : delivered "r.a,. knock-oiytv blow .to able-bodied "... mothers-in-law M'hen Mis . detided that Mr. JohniKeery must,either pay his • wife --alimony or oust his_ mother. Mothers-in-law' are, the same cherished and vcnerablo institutions; here. as on -yonrisido of the Atlantic, writes tho New York correspondent of the "Morninc Post," -and the decision: is one of far-reaching importance. If Mr. ICeery : decides. that he loves. his mother more -thanhis. wifo,• the , Court will fix tho amount of tho . alimony, but; if, on tho. .other hand, ho. ovists his mother, who is. a:. vigorous middle-aged woman and an excellent coolc, and able to command the American wage 'of £5 per. month . and her", board, the -wifo- must return- to" her hus-i band :or forfeit, tho alimony. < Vln elaborat-" his decision to-day, Judge Stevenson said'.'Homo is not homo where 'there is : a .mother-in-law. If a man installs his mother • in' his homo-when she is- ablo to provide for-herself elsewhere, "it is-hot such: a .home as a wife must accept/ and in the eyes of tho law such conduct on the part of a... husband is abandonment of.his wife. If, however, a man's mother' is indigent and his income is not sufficient ■ to provido a home'for her elsewhere, it is his duty to take her into his homo and ask his wife-to' make the'.best of .the situation. ' In,thiscase" the mother-in-law.' is a vigorous woman, able to pbtain employment and take care of herself. . When offered employment Miv Kcery's mother ' declined, saying .her son's farm was hot run right, and that she would run things for him. Tho defendant's wifo objected to the,presence, of. her mother-in-law, -and left when her husband refused to put'his mother out. , flint refusal was construed as an act of, abandonment by* the wifo, and she was rinht."