DIVORCE CASE.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1701, 18 March 1913, Page 5

DIVORCE CASE.

CONSTRUCTIVE 1 DESERTION (By Telegraph.—Special Correspondent.) ' Auckland, March-lir--An important judgment in divorce was given to-day by Mr. Justice Cooper lit the Supreme Court. In the action the parties wero Adolph Frederick William Lorio (petitioner) and Sarah Ellen Lorio (respondent). The ground of the petition was the alleged desertion by the respondent of the petitioner for a period of over five years.. ,The parties were married in December, ;1881',- and 'lived' together ' for many years, there .being several children of the marriage. The desertian alleged was said to have commenced iu May, 1800, and to have continued ever since, lor 1 pome years prior to 1906 tho, parties, had not lived happily together, ■ and on-Janu-ary 10, 1905, an agreement of separation was entered into.'i The actual separation did not last long, .but. ceased'in May, 1905, and the parties lived together as man and wife until, the end, of the year. Later ohc had refused to live with liim,... al-. though he had repeatedly asked ■ her 10 do so. ,

The judgment set forth that the question to be decided was whether tlio proved facts constituted a case'of constructive' desertion, the respondent having persistently from the year 190G refused to 'allow her husband to cohabit with her, the parties, however, having for sotae tiiiio since then lived in the same house. Concluding, the decision stated that the correspondence which hod passed between tho parties clearly-established that • the respondent had' persistently 'in many ways refused to treat petitioner as her husband or to consider him tho bend of the family, or even as substantially entitled to a voice in the management of tho family. In his (Ins Honour's) opinion, the petitioner had-established a case of constructive desertion, commencing at the end of 190 C, and continuing till tho present time, and this desertion had lwon without any reasonable cause. Tliero must therefore be a decree nisi for dissolution of marriage, (6 be mado absolute at the expiration of three mouths.