TWO DECREES NISI GRANTED

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21970, 19 December 1936, Page 21

TWO DECREES NISI GRANTED

+. SEPARATION IMMEDIATELY ' AFTER MARRIAGE (PRESS ASSOCUTIOX TELIGBUM.' AUCKLAND, December If. The legality of agreements to sepa*ate'between parties who separated immediately after their marriage and never lived together was questioned by Mr Justice Smith in two divorce cases that came before him in the Supreme Court here last month. He then expressed the opinion that it was against public policy for parties to go through the form of marriage when neither ever really intended to live with the other. In judgments issued to-day, his Honour granted decrees nisi to the petitioners in both case? in which he reserved judgment. Referring to one case, his Honour said there was a genuine agreement made after the marriage for immediate separation, not an ajjreement made before the marriage for future separation. The law did not frown upothe former though it did upon th* latter. In the other case, his Honour that before the marriage the inrt:»-= had agreed that they would and not live together <. ->an and wifIt appeared that in the s'rec? af»<— the marriage the parties discussed thr situation as married persons and »heseparated. Since that separation they had met each other several time?. Xri* had merely reiterated their agreement not to live together, and they had re' i:- fact lived together since the nrriage. "I have come to the conclusion that I am justified on authority in inferring that the parties did in the street after the marriage agree, in their capacity as-married persons, to an immediate separation, and that they acted upon that agreement immediately."