DIVORCE PETITION.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 24 May 1928, Page 5

DIVORCE PETITION.

WIFE SUCCEEDS. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) ( CHRISTCHURCH, Wednesday. Amongst the divorce petitions heard before Mr Justice Adams to-dav was a most unusual one from a bigamist, who wanted to divorce his wife on the ground that she had desert,ed him. Petitioner wa9 not present to support his claim; but the wife was, and she secured a divorce on a cross-petition. Frederick William Seaton, engineer, of Papakura, asked for divorce from Elizabeth Seaton (Mr E. S. McCarthy) on the ground of desertion. The wife entered a cross-petition on the ground of desertion and adultery. Mr McCarthy said that after deserting his wife Seaton had contracted a bigamous marriage with another woman. Petitioner said that she married Seaton in 1917. They lived at Napier for about two months; she was a widow with one child, and he a widower with two children. In two months he gave her only £-4 for maintenance. They agreed to separate until he could afford to maintain a home, and her ‘ husband went to Palmerston North. He had never gone 'back to her. In Palmerston North-, in 1921, she gave evidence against him in a case in which he pleaded guilty to a charge of contracting a marriage with another woman, thereby committing bigamy. He was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment. A decree nisi was granted, to be made absolute after three months.