205 P. 540 | Or. | 1922
— After alleging the necessary residence qualifications and the marriage of the parties, the plaintiff charges “that on or about the twenty-first day of April, 1918, defendant willfully deserted and abandoned -this plaintiff without cause or provocation being given by this plaintiff and against this plaintiff’s wish and desire, and has ever since said time continued to desert and abandon this plaintiff. ’ ’ The only answer interposed by the defendant is a denial of every allegation of the complaint except the existence of the marriage relation between the parties. The Circuit Court rendered a decree dissolving the marriage relation, and the defendant appeals.
It appears in evidence that this is the fourth attempt of the plaintiff to rid himself of his. wife by suit. The testimony shows that they resided on a homestead in Klickitat County, Washington, and that the plaintiff was absent from home a great deal, leaving the defendant there alone. After having made his final proof on the homestead and having received a final certificate, the plaintiff relinquished the same, evidently with the design of preventing the defendant from securing any benefit from it under the community property laws of Washington. He commenced his first suit in Klickitat County, and dismissed it. The second suit was begun by him in Clarke County, Washington. The defendant here resisted and the result was that the court denied his right to relief and entered a decree on her cross-complaint, allowing her $30 per month for separate maintenance. From the decree of the trial court the plaintiff here appealed and it was affirmed by the Supreme Court of that state. The case is reported in Larson v. Larson, 106 Wash. 305 (179 Pac. 841).
“But, when the desertion has continued through the statutory period, the deserted party may rely, upon his acquired right and refuse to renew the cohabitation: 1 Bishop on Marriage, Divorce and Separation, § 1775. The reason appears to be that the innocent party has acquired a right, a cause of action, which he is not bound to, but may, surrender, and resume marital relations upon an agreement, express or implied, with the guilty one that she is acting in good faith and will not repeat the offense; and, upon the contrary being shown, the cause of action previously existing, but which was conditionally surrendered, will be revived.”
It is said in 19 C. J. 66:
“An offer of reconciliation must be made in good faith, and not merely to lay a foundation for or to defeat an action for, divorce. It must be free from*397 improper qualifications and conditions, and must also be conciliatory in form and substance. An offer of reconciliation by a guilty spouse must be made before the expiration of the statutory period in order to deprive the innocent spouse of the right to a divorce.”
See also Gordon v. Gordon, 88 N. J. Eq. 436 (103 Atl. 33); Benkert v. Benkert, 32 Cal. 468; Stoneburner v. Stoneburner, 11 Idaho, 603 (83 Pac. 938); Tipton v. Tipton, 169 Iowa, 182 (151 N. W. 90, Ann. Cas. 1916C, 360); Lundy v. Lundy, 23 Ariz. 213, (202 Pac. 809).
In addition to all this, the offer to return must be made in good faith. In the present instance, under all the circumstances disclosed by the evidence, the request of the plaintiff for his wife to return and live with him smacks too much of a mere desire to evade the payment to her of the maintenance awarded her by the decree of the Washington court. This disposition crops out in his own testimony quite apparently. It is not the law that in his own discretion he may desert his wife so long as to give her a cause of suit and then at his own good pleasure deprive her of
Reversed and Suit Dismissed.