PROBLEM IN DIVORCE LAW.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15563, 21 March 1914, Page 2 (Supplement)

PROBLEM IN DIVORCE LAW.

CASTELLANE-GOULD MARRIAGE. PETITION FOR NULLITY. * The Castellane-Gould nullity of marriage petition, now pending before the Tribunal of the Rota in Rome, is supplying the public with fresh surprises. It is fast becoming as interesting as the famous divorce suit brought against her husband by Anna Gould in 1906, and decided in. her favour by the Paris Court. This time, however, it is the husband who is seeking to obtain satisfaction before an ecclesiastical court. All the papers, including even the Catholic and ecclesiastical organs, announced last year that his marriage to Miss Anna Gould had been declared null by the Tribunal of the Rota in Rome. This, it seerfts now, was all a mistake. The decision of the Rota was only one of procedure and not a definite one. It does not finally settle the case, but reopens it. The mistake was caused by a rather hasty and wrong interpreta- s tion of the wording of the decree. A Catholic marriage is not definitely considered null until it as been declared so by two formal judgments the one confirming the other, and Tendered according to the bull "De Miseratione" of Pope Benedict XIV.

In the present state of procedure beforj the Tribunal of the Rota two decrees or judgments have been give*, but instead of confirming each other the second is contrary to the first. The Rota was asked three years ago to answer the following question: Are there reasons I for thinking that the marriage of Count I Boni de Ca&tellane with Miss Anna Gould was null in canon law? The judges of I the. Rota answered this question on De--1 cember 9, 1911, in the following words : I •' Before God we say and declare and I / that the marriage was null in canon law. " Coiint Boni de Castellane, however, of- , fered to bring further proof to enlighten i i the minds of the judges and, in fact, he brought two witnesses, one Prince del Drago and the other a former governess, who declared that they both heard Mjss Anna Gould declare some time before'the marriage that she would apply for a divorce if ever she should think herself justified in doing so. This was interpreted as an absolute lack of consent- on her part to the Catholic and canonical marriage, and it is the ground on which the petitioner, Count Boni de Castellane, bases his application. After these two witnesses had been heard, and a registered letter had been sent to the former Miss Anna Gould, now Duchesso de Talleyrand, which elicited no reply, the judges of the Rota issued a second decree or judgment on March 1. 1913, in answer to a question as to whether the judgment of 1911 was to be upheld or not. They replied that it was not, and gave their reasons in a lengthy judgment. As the sentence of 1911 had stated that there were no reasons apparent for declaring the marriage null, .it was assumed at once that the tribunal now declared the contrary, and that the marriage was to be considered null. But the tribunal intended nothing of the kind, It simply wished to declare that the sentence of 1911 was not definite, nad that there were reasons for re-opening the case.

As a matter of fact, the case has since been re-opened, and there was another hearing on January 28 last. The former Countess Boni de Castellane has brought an objection. She states that the letter citing her to give evidence had not reached her, because she had given a general order to refuse all registered letters. On the other hand, she objects to- the allegation which is the basis of her former husband's petition. She declares positively that she gave her full, free, 'and unqualified conBent at the time of her marriage in the Catholic Church. Therefore, there can bo no ground for declaring her marriage with the count null in canon law. As she is the principal wiitness in the case, and she alone can know what was her mind at the time of the ceremony, the Rota is compelled to take it into consideration. Thus the case is re-opened, and it is idle to speculate as to what the ultimate decision of the Rota will be.