High Court of Australia
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IN THE HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA. |
MORRIS.
MORRIS
REASONS FOR JUDGMENT.
Delivered at_..S¥DNBY on......th. August, 1945
40958 A. H. Perrtrzn, Active Gove. Prix.
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IN THE HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA) NEW SOUTH WALES REGISTRY ,
MORRIS _V. MORRIS
JUDGMENT: LATHAM C.J.
This is a case of 'a most unhappy marriage which after an initial three years of apparently satisfactory matrimonial life has turned out to he a complete failure.
The evidence which was accepted by the learned Judge shows that the wife refused sexual intercourse with her husband, that she refused to show him any affection, that she refused to associate with him while deliberately associating with other men, that she refused, in effect, to prepare his meals, to make his bed or to mend his clothes. But none of those facts in itself is a ground for divorce, however serious they may be in the private lives of the individuals concerned.
It is necessary in the present case to establish the ground relied upon by the petitioner, namely, wilful desertion without just cause or excise for three years prior to the presen- tation of the petition. The petition was presented on the 16th October 1944. It was therefore necessary to establish desertion by the wife' beginning at. a date three years prior to the date mentioned and continuing thereafter. The husband did not leave the matrimonial home (he was purchasing the house on terms) until September 1944, when the addition to the other circumstances which
I have mentioned of an assault by a male friend of his wife led him to leave the home and to live with his parents.
The question is - was there desertion by the wife three years prior to the presentation of the petition? There may be desertion though the parties continue to live under the same roof, buts as has been said, very strong facts are required to establish desertion in'such a case. If there is not actual physical separation by the spouse alleged to be the offending party, there must be a real living apart, an abandonment of the matrimonial
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