SUPREME COURT

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27499, 5 November 1954, Page 7

SUPREME COURT

DEFENDED DIVORCE PETITION EVIDENCE BY RESPONDENT The respondent and the man cited as co-respondent gave evidence yesterday in a defended divorce petition being heard before Mr Justice Adams and a jury in the Supreme Court. The Court then adjourned until this morning when the hearing will be continued. The petitioner, Joseph Oswald Pfahlert, a grocer, is petitioning for divorce from Mabel Winefred Pfahlert on the grounds of adultery, and cites Raymond Joseph Atkinson, a farmer, as co-respondent. Pfahlert is represented by Mr A. W. Brown and Mr P. T. Mahon; Mrs Pfahlert by Mr E. M. Hay: and Atkinson by Mr K. W. Frampton. The hearing began on Wednesday and the case for the petitioner was completed yesterday. The case for the defence began in the afternoon. Mr Hay submitted that the special defence—that of condonation—was a matter for the Judge and not for the jury.

His Honour said it seemed that the issues for him to put to the jury were: “Has the respondent committed adultery? Has the co-respondent committed adultery? If the answer is ‘yes’ what damages do you award?” Counsel were agreed that other questions would be for the Court to decide.

Mrs Pfahlert denied that she ever at any time committed adultery said Mr Hay, outlining the defence. She would say that her relationship with Atkinson was no more than close fritendship. Her marriage was unhappy almost from the beginning. Her husband was moody and at times sulky. He would not speak to her for days on end. Pfahlert did not take her out and she had to make her own entertainment. Her evidence would be that it was at her husband's own suggestion that Atkinson took her to a dance. They went regularly to dances for about 12 months, but her husband seemed to disapprove though he did not say anything, so they confined their outings to social evenings.

Mrs Pfahlert would say that on the night of March 18, 1953, she and Atkinson were not lying on the bed in Atkinson’s home and that they did not at any time commit adultery. Mrs Pfahlert gave evidence on those lines and Atkinson was giving evidence when the Court adjourned.