DIVORCE PETITION DISMISSED.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18889, 12 October 1929, Page 9

DIVORCE PETITION DISMISSED.

Per Press Association. AUCKLAND, October 11. On the ground that there was a col lusive agreement between all the par ties. Mr Justice Smith to-day dismissed a petition for divorce with John Per cival Smith as petitioner, Beatrice Smith as respondent, and Joseph Archi bald M’Clean as co-respondent. The parties were neighbours at Ka waka 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 dam ages, 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 re quire 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 institu tion of the suit. Petitioner, therefore, could not claim the benefit of either of the mitigating circumstances quoted by counsel.