BITTER PROTEST.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20331, 14 June 1934, Page 5

BITTER PROTEST.

Lav/ Bars Wife’s Suit for Divorce. “WHAT CAN I DO?" (Special to the ” Star.”) LONDON, May 4. An Englishwoman married to a foreigner living in England cannot petition for divorce if he can prove that he is domiciled abroad. This remarkable flaw in our laws was strikingly illustrated in a case heard by Mr Justice Bateson. Mrs Putnam Eaton, an attractive young Englishwoman, of Street’s Mews, Park Lane, petitioned for a divorce from her American husband, whom she married in England nine years ago, and from whom she has been separated for years. The defence was that although Mr Eaton was living in this country, his legal domicile was in America, and that the English Courts, therefore, had no jurisdiction to try the case. After a* two-days’ hearing the Judge decided that thq husband had established his contention. Lost Rights. A bitter protest was made to the “ Daily Express ” by Mrs Eaton. What am I to do? ’’ she said. “ By marrying an American I have not only lost my British nationality, but also the right of petitioning for a divorce in the Courts of my own country. “ It is equally impossible for me to take proceedings in America. I cannot establish a domicile there because I would not be permitted to stay in the United States unless my husband petitioned his Government to allow me to do so.

“ It seems that I can never take proceedings for a dissolution of my marriage until Parliament amends the law, and there are probably hundreds of

other Englishwomen in the same position. “ The question whether I had grounds for divorce was not tried in Court. The only issue was that of my husband’s domicile.” The Legal View. A legal authority who has made a study of Mrs Eaton’s case said: “ A wife in law takes the domicile as well as the nationality of her husband. As Mr Eaton could show that he was for legal purposes domiciled abroad, Mrs Eaton is herself assumed to have a foreign domicile, and under international law the English Courts are incompetent to try any action that would change the status of her husband. “ She could sue for restitution of conjugal rights, or she could obtain a judicial separation—but not a divorce. “ The law should be altered so that an Englishwoman should retain her legal British domicile as well as her British nationality when she marries an alien.”