103 N.J. Eq. 214 | N.J. Ct. of Ch. | 1928
This matter is before the court on complainant's bill for maintenance, based on the twenty-sixth section of the Divorce act, and defendant's counter-claim for divorce, based on the ground of desertion. The parties were married April 25th, 1922, and lived together for about three weeks when the complainant abandoned the defendant. She says she was obliged to leave him "on account of his cruelty to her." The cruelty is not specified. The only cruelty recognized by our law which may warrant one spouse in abandoning another is such as is denominated "extreme cruelty," which our court of errors and appeals has defined to be such cruel conduct as endangers the safety of the person or the health of the aggrieved party, either actually inflicted or reasonably apprehended. Cavileer v.Cavileer,
Inasmuch as this court adjudicated in complainant's former suit that she had failed to substantiate the allegations of her petition, it was her duty to return to live with the defendant, for, as stated in Taylor v. Taylor, supra, "a wife must live with her husband, make his home hers and give him her society and services, unless she can show reasons valid in law, relieving her from her duty to him." See, also, Pinkinson v. Pinkinson,
I will advise a decree dismissing the complainant's bill, and granting to the defendant a decree of divorce on the ground of desertion, as prayed in his counter-claim.