Reports of Cases in the Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia (Volume 100)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1879. Excerpt: ... Latham, by, f, v. Latham. July i8. 1. In suits for divorce the pleadings and rules of evidence are the 1878. same as in other suits in equity, except that the bill shall not..;J1.V be taken for confessed, and the cause must be heard independent of the admissions of either party on the pleadings. But.where the answer is responsive to the allegations of the bill, the defendant is entitled to the benefit of it. as in other cases in equity. 2. Although the fact that a married man is seen in a house of ill fame is strong evidence of the crime of adultery, yet it is not of itself conclusive, and the act is open to explanation; and it was satisfactorily explained in this case. 3. Desertion is a breach of matrimonial duty, and is composed. first, of the breaking off' of the matrimonial cohabitation; and, secondly, an intent to desert in the mind of the offender. Both must combine to make the desertion complete. A mere separation by mutual consent, is not desertion by either party. 4. The cruelty that authorizes a divorce is anything that tends to bodily harm, and that thus renders cohabitation unsafe; or, as expressed in the older decisions, that involves danger of life, limb or health. -, . There may be cases in which the husband, without violence, actual or threatened, may make the marriage state impossible to be endured. There may be angry words, coarse and abusive language, humiliating insults, and annoyances in all the forms that malice can suggest, which may as effectually endanger life or health, as personal violence, and which therefore would afford grounds for relief by the court; but what merely wounds the feelings, without being accompanied by bodily injury or actual menace, does not amount to legal cruelty. 6. The father is the legal custodian of the ...