agreements to separate

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXX, 21 December 1936, Page 6

agreements to separate

TWO DECREES GRANTED (United Press Association) AUCKLAND, 18th December. The legality of agreements to separate between parties who separated immediately after their marriage and never lived together was questioned bv Mr Justice Smith in two divorce cases that camfe before him in the Supreme Court here last month. He then expressed the opinion that it was against public policy for the parties to go through a form of marriage when neither intended to live with the other. In judgments issued to-day, his Honour granted decrees nisi to petitioners in both cases in which he reserved judgment. Referring to one case, his Honour said there was a genuine agreement made after marriage for an immediate separation, not an agreement made before marriage for a future separation. The law did not frown upon the former, although it did upon the latter.. In the other case, his Honour said, before the marriage the parties had agreed they would separate and not live together as man and wife. It appeared that in the. street after the marriage the parties discussed the situation as married persons and then separated. Since that separation they had met each other several times, but had merely reiterated their agreement not to live together and they had not, in fact, lived together since' the marriage. “I have come to the conclusion, he said, “that I am justified on authority, in inferring that the parties did in the street after the marriage agree to an immediate separation, and that they acted upon that agreement immediately-”