76 Vt. 190 | Vt. | 1904
This is a petition for a divorce, with a prayer for alimony. The petitionee, in bar of the petitioner’s claim for alimony, offered to prove, that, prior to the marriage of ■•the parties, they entered into’ an antenuptial contract of the following tenor: “For value received, I promise to pay to the order of Ellen R. Wilson three thousand dollars on demand with interest; said note is in consideration of a marxiage this day to be solemnized and is in full payment for all sums said Ellen R. Wilson or her heirs or assigns will ever claim against me or my estate in law or in equity; said sum to be subject to her order and control, and is in full payment for all she will ever claim of me or against my estate.” The petitionee also offered to show that he had complied with the terms of the contract. The evidence was excluded. A divorce was granted for the adultery of the petitionee, and certain real and personal estate belonging to him was decreed to the petitioner as alimony.
It has been held by this Court, that contracts like the one in the case at bar do not contemplate a divorce, through the fault of the husband; that they do not relate to, nor touch upon, the subject of the husband’s duty, under the marital contract, to support his wife, nor upon her right to be supported until the contract of marriage comes to an end by the removal of one of the parties by death; and that they are not •intended to control the rights of the parties, when the husband ■so conducts himself that the wife is deprived of the support which she was entitled to upon the consummation of the •marriage, and do not bar the wife from permanent alimony. Stearns v. Stearns, 66 Vt. 187, 28 Atl. 875. In the case before cited, the petitioner, before the consummation of the -marriage, agreed to relinquish all rights to the property which the petitionee then had or might acquire, and that she should
Judgment affirmed.