IN DIVORCE.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 936, 1 October 1910, Page 14

IN DIVORCE.

DECREE OF NULLITY GRANTED. V Mr.' Justice Chapman adjudicated in . the c'aso of Ruth Muter ©wen v. Bertie Graham Owen, a wife's ypfetition for nullity of marriage. , Th 6 petitioner : is an artist, residing at Lower Hutt, and, the respondent is an insurance agent ••at'-Auckland. Mr. R. ti; Kirk appeared; for the petitioner. No defence was set up. ,'jse petitioner who was then Ruth Muter, 1 was married to Owon. in Sep-

tembeiy 1905. Owen, was arrested at Napier in July, 1907, and convicted of having falsely declared at the time of tho marriage that' he was a bachelor, whereas he had married in 1893, one Minnie .Schmidt, in South Australia; : When the petition was last before.the Court, the matter. was adjourned in order to obtain the evidence of Stephen Lean, caterer,'of Dunedin. This evidence, which was: produced yesterday, haying been taken on commission before tne Registrar of the Supreme Court at Dunedin, showed that Lean knew both parties to the earlier marriage, and that Minnie Schmidt worked for him for some years," subsequent to her marriage, and left with him for safe custody her marriage certificate, which he produced. He also stated that the former wife returned to Dunedin with the Bland Holt Dramatic Company, in 1909, and was seen and identified by him. : . His Honour,^-'.being' satisfied that , the former wife" was' living at "the. time of the: marriage with Ruth Muter,' , a. decree of nullity' of marriage was granted.