ACTION FOR DIVORCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19253, 16 February 1926, Page 12

ACTION FOR DIVORCE.

DAMAGES CLAIM ABANDONED.

An action for divorce, in which £SOO damages was originally claimed in th« petition, came before Mr. Justice Stringer in the Supreme Court yesterday. Prior to the trial the claim for damages was abandoned. Walter Frederick Barnaby (Mr. Black) sought divorce from Ellen Rebecca Barnaby (Mr. Meredith) on the ground of misconduct, (jiving Edward Dimock (Mr. Dickson) as co-respondent. A defence had been filed, but withdrawn, The case was accordingly treated as undefended, neither counsel for the defence taking part in the proceedings. Petitioner said he married respondent, a divorcee, in Wellington* on August 21, 1919. She was keeping a boarding house at the time. When he came to Auckland she refused to accompany him. Last September, however, she followed him, but after a few weeks returned to Wellington. Five weeks later she came back to Auckland". In the meantime he had started the present proceedings, and he refused to receive her as his wife. On going to her room at the Waitemata Hotel to serve the citation he failed to find her, but there was a man in the room, who stated the apartment was his own. Other evidence was given to show that respondent and co-respondent spent a week together last July at a Wellington boarding house, as man and wife. His Honor granted a decree nisi, with costs against the co-respondent.