WIFE AND MISTRESS

Greymouth Evening Star, 12 April 1932, Page 3

WIFE AND MISTRESS

“REVOLUTION” IN HOMES?

PARIS, February 27.

A legal decision which' is regarded as epoch-making has been delivered by the First Chamber of the Paris Court of Appeal. It recognises the right of a husband to bequeath part of his estate to his mistress. Two women—both grey-haired to-day-have been engaged in a legal battle over this question for fifteen years.

The man in the case was killed in action in 1917. He was a wealthy Paris business man, who before the war had established two homes, one legal, the other frankly “extra-con-, jugal.” After his death it was found that his will left part of his fortune to his mistress. The wife, however, refused to allow her rival to take possession of the property allocated to her. Before the court she invoked the famous principle of French law that no contract contrary to public order or sound morals is binding. Counsel for the unofficial wife argued, however, that a husband does not always desert his home for reasons that are essentially immoiral. He suggested that in the present case the man sought outside his home the tranquil ity which he failed to find at the side of his wife. After much hesitation the Civil Tribunal accepted this argument. Now the Appeal Court, also after much hesitation, has followed suit.