43 Iowa 534 | Iowa | 1876
Marriages may be annulled under the Code where either party was impotent, insane or idiotic, at the time of the marriage. Sec. 2231. But neither, whether existing at the time of the marriage, or arising subsequent thereto, are in terms made grounds for a divorce. The statutory ground or cause of divorce, on which the plaintiff must succeed, if at all, is as follows: “When the defend
It is said that marriage is á civil contract and should be dissolved for like causes as other contracts, or rather that insanity of a partner is sufficient cause to warrant a dissolution of the contract of partnership, and that the same cause should dissolve the marriage relation. Without wishing to be understood as adopting the view that the contract of marriage bears the slightest resemblance to that of partnership, still we may admit such resemblance in a legal point of view, and yet the position claimed by counsel for the plaintiff stands unproved. The marriage relation, or contract, can only be dissolved on some one of the grounds named in the statute, and insanity is not one of these. We do not require a statute to aid us in determining what grounds are necessary to dissolve a partnership. The distinction between the two cases is obvious, and none more alike can, we apprehend, be cited. It is said the attack made on the plaintiff with a knife was an assault, and that “ insane persons are generally held civilly liable for torts, as the actionable quality of such acts do not depend upon intention.” Behrens v. McKenzie, 23 Iowa, 333. Accepting the
Affirmed.