DECREE ANNULLED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22543, 7 October 1936, Page 17

DECREE ANNULLED

AGREEMENT NOT DISCLOSED SOLICITOR-GENERAL'S ACTION Ihe unusual action of intervention by the Solicitor-General in divorce proceedings led to the annulling of a.decree nisi and the dismissal of a divorce petition in the Supreme Court yesterday. The matter came before Mr. Justice Johnston. The petitioner was Martin Bilich White (Mr. Singer) and the respondent Mary Georgia Bilich White, and they were married on November 19, ]9.'30. On February 27, ]936, the petitioner was granted a decree nisi on the ground that the respondent had failed to comply with a decree for the restitution of conjugal rights. The reason for the intervention of the Solicitoi'-General •was that at the time the decree was granted there had been in existence an agreement of separation between the parties, which had not been brought to the notice of the Court.

Mr. Meredith, representing the Solici-tor-General, said that this was a plea for rescission of a decree nisi. The facts were set out in the plea before His Honor, and they were admitted, so that there was no necessity to call evidence. The fact that the agreement for separation was not before the Court was a bar to the decree. That being so the decree must be struck^out. Mr. Singer said that was *the position. Of course, there was a full and complete and perfectly reasonable explanation of the matter, which it was not necessary for him to go into, as His Honor and Mr. Meredith ( were familiar with the facts. His Honor agreed that it was not necessary. The existence of a separation agreement, he said, was a bar to relying on failure to comply with an order for restitution of conjugal rights The decree nisi in this action would be annulled and the petition dismissed.