COLLUSION IN DIVORCE

Taranaki Daily News, 12 October 1929, Page 13

COLLUSION IN DIVORCE

COURT DISMISSES PETITION. STRANGE AGREEMENT OF PARTIES. By Telegraph—Press Association. Oct. 11. On the ground that there was a collusive agreement between all parties Mr. Justice Smith to-day dismissed a petition for divorce between John Percival Smith, petitioner, Beatrice Smith, respondent, and Joseph Archibald McLean, co-respondent. The parties were neighbours at Kaiwaka and the case was remarkable for the agreement said to have 'been entered into . between Smith nd McLean, by which the latter was to buy Smith’s farm and marry his wife when she had been divorced, and give her and her children a home. It was understood that petitioner would not claim damages and that the divorce proceedings would not bo defended. His Honour found tht the suit was instituted pursuant to a collusive agreement, and that was sufficient to require the Court to dismiss the petition. Petitioner did not abandon the suit and filed a fresh petition free from collusive taint. The force of the collusion had not been spent before the institution of the suit, petitioner therefore could not claim the benefit of either of the mitigating circumstances quoted by counsel.