IMPORTANT DECISION.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 15 December 1925, Page 5

IMPORTANT DECISION.

EFFECT OF DI VORCE DECREE. UPON A MAINTENANCE ORDER. (BY TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION.) AUCKLAND, Dec. 14. An important decision on the effect of a decree absolute in divorce oil a maiiibenance order wavs made 'by Sir Robert )Stou!t, Chief Justice, in, the Supreme Court to-day, when an application for a writ of habeas corpus was made by Mr. Quaifley on behalf of Ernest Henry Ricketts, a prisoner in Mount Eden gaol. The decision i-s believed to be the first of its kind in New Zealand. The facts of the case were that in 1920 Ricketts was directed by order of the Christchurch Magistrate's Court to pay maintenance at. the rate of £2 os a week to- his wife, Florence Matilda Ricketts. The order -became effective, but in July, 1924, the wife was granted a decree absolute in divorce. In August, 1925, complaint was made to the officer in charge of maintenance proceedings that arrears of maintenance, dating from December 12, 1924, were due. On that information Ricketts was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment, -and he went to gaol on November 5.Mr. Quartley moved for a writ of habeas corpus on the ground that, a-s the divorce had -been made absolute, the -maintenance was vacated. Legally Ricketts h'acl ceased to be the husband, and there could be no arrears as from that date. His Honour held that the wife had no power to act under the maintenance order. The maintenance order was vacated -and her remedy would he to a-pply fo.r a. petition for permanent hiliimony. R.ickeitrtfe had ceased tlo be her husband, iand be w-aa civilly dead. The application -for a rule absolute of habeas corpus was granted, -and the prisouer, who attended the court with the deputy-superintendent of the gaol, was discharged.