47 N.Y.S. 270 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1897
The plaintiff brought his action for a separation, based upon the allegations of abandonment by the defendant, and of a continued refusal by her to live with him. The defendant answered by interposing a denial of the abandonment, and setting up, by way of counterclaim, that the plaintiff abandoned her, and that he has been guilty of cruel and inhuman treatment toward her of such a character as renders it unsafe and improper for her to cohabit or live with him, and asked judgment for a separation, together with other relief. The evidence given upon the trial before the referee was very voluminous, and in effect gave a detailed account of the marital relations of the parties from the time of their marriage down to the date of the alleged abandonment, and to some extent, afterwards. By the record it appears that the plaintiff was addicted to the use of intoxicating liquors to an extent which brings him dangerously near to being an habitual drunkard. Between the date of his marriage in November, 1892, and December, 1895, he was an inmate of four different asylums or institutions for the cure of drunkenness. The first institution he visited for the cure of his alcoholic habit was at White Plains. He entered this institution in the last of February, and remained until the 6tli of April, 1893. He almost immediately relapsed into his former habits upon leaving the institution, and on the thirtieth day of the last-named month he again sought admission to the same institution, and was refused. In May, 1894, he was an inmate of the New York Christian Home, a cure for inebriates, where he remained taking treatment for about two and one-half months. About August 1, 1894, he entered a similar institution at Fort Hamilton, where he remained six or seven months. In June, 1895, he entered the Rose Baker Gold Cure at Cornwall, where he remained about three months. He left Cornwall in the last of September, had a relapse and returned in November, 1895, remaining until December ninth of. that year. In the interval between his discharge from the last-named institution in September, and his return thereto in November, he had a period of sobriety sufficient in length to enable him to verify his complaint and institute an action against his wife, charging her with abandonment, and demanding the custody of the child of the marriage. He had, prior thereto, evidenced an intention of laying the foundation for this action,
It follows that the judgment should be affirmed, with costs, and the order affirmed, with ten dollars costs and disbursements.
All concurred.
Order affirmed, with ten dollars costs, and disbursements. Judgment affirmed, with costs. •