HUSBAND AND WIFE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVII, Issue 17459, 1 May 1920, Page 8

HUSBAND AND WIFE.

QUESTION OF MAINTENANCE. AX APPEAL UPHELD. Judgment in favour of the appellant was given by Mr. Justice Sim in the Supreme Court yesterday in an appeal by the defendant from the decision of Mr. K. C. Cutten, 8.M., in an application under the Destitute Persons' Act, made by Alice F, Topp (Mr. (Jraham), against William A. Topp (Mr. Richmond, instructed by Mr. C. C, Chalmers). The magistrate's separation order granted the plaintiff maintenance at the rate of £2 10s a week, with custody of tho children. His Honor said that the magistrate had adjudged the appellant to be guilty of persistent cruelty to his wife, and had declared that the respondent was no longer bound to cohabit with the appellant. The respondent's itory was that her husband had struck her violent blows on the fece, kicked her all over the diningroom, and attempted to strangle her by lifting her up with a pair of trousers round hor neck. Tho evidence of hidependant witnesses, however, was that the appellant was a kind and considerate husband, who appeared generally to live on good terms with his wife. It waa therefore impossible to believe the respondent's story. The appellant admitted slanping his wife's face on two occasions under provocation, and that he threw a pair of wet trousers at her. The respondent's behaviour in tho witness-box certainly suggested that she must have been a trying woman to live with. The appellant s acta did not cause danger to the life, limb, or health of (ho respondent, or reasonable apprehension of it, and in the circumstances could not be regarded" an amounting to legal cruelty. Therefore the order mado by the magistrate was not justified and must be get aside.