COURT REFUSES DIVORCE IN A CLAIM BY FARMER.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18887, 11 October 1929, Page 11

COURT REFUSES DIVORCE IN A CLAIM BY FARMER.

Per Press Association. AUCKLAND. October 11. On the ground that there was a collusive agreement between all the parties, Mr Justice Smith to-day dismissed a petition for divorce with John Percival Smith as petitioner. Beatrice Smith as respondent, and Joseph Archibald M’Glean as co-respondent. The parties were neighbours at Kawaka and the case was remarkable for an agreement said to have been entered into between Smith and M’Clean, by which the latter was to buy Smith’s farm, 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 be defended. His Honor found that 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.