Pile v. Pile

Citation22 S.W. 215,94 Ky. 308
PartiesPILE v. PILE.
Decision Date04 May 1893
CourtCourt of Appeals of Kentucky

Appeal from circuit court, Breckenridge county.

To be officially reported.

Action by Isaac Pile against Amanda Pile for divorce. From an order dismissing the petition, plaintiff appeals. Affirmed.

Morris Eskridge, for appellant.

PRYOR J.

The appellant filed his petition in equity, seeking a divorce from his wife on the ground of lunacy and an abandonment for five years, alleging that she is now confined in the lunatic asylum at Hopkinsville. He offers to surrender to the chancellor for the wife such part of his estate, real and personal, as may be deemed necessary for her support and maintenance, but wants an absolute divorce. It is stated in his petition that after their marriage they lived happily together for several years, when an unfortunate condition of her mind developed, and she is now, and was at the institution of the action, a confirmed lunatic, with no hope of recovery. The causes for a divorce are to be found in the statute only, and lunacy is not by express words, or by any reasonable implication, made one of the grounds for severing the marital relation. It is argued that this mental disease is such as to prevent the wife from discharging her conjugal duties, and the husband from enjoying that intercourse with the wife resulting from the marriage relation. We cannot give such an enlarged meaning to the statute. Here the wife has a mind diseased without her fault. She lived happily with her husband for several years after the marriage, and discharged all the obligations and duties pertaining to the marriage relation. This relation is presumed to have been entered into by reason of the love and affection the two had for each other; and to adjudge that the misfortunes of this life originating from causes over which neither have control depriving the husband of the right of enjoying his baser passions, is a ground for divorce, would be placing mankind on a level with brute creation, and making the real virtues and happiness of married life subordinate to the enjoyment of mere animal propensities. This man, when he took the unfortunate woman to be his wife, vowed at the altar to love, cherish, and protect her in sickness and in health, and, whether the wife is diseased in mind or body, his marriage vow should and must be observed. The more helpless she becomes, the greater his duty to love and protect...

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20 cases
  • Hayes v. Hayes
    • United States
    • Florida Supreme Court
    • November 3, 1923
    ...on Marriage, Divorce, Separation, and Domestic Relations, 1880; Huston v. Huston's Committee, 150 Ky. 353, 150 S.W. 386; Pile v. Pile, 94 Ky. 308, 22 S.W. 215; Lewis Lewis, 60 Okl. 60, 158 P. 368; Steed v. Steed, 54 Utah, 244, 181 P. 445. The bill of complaint in this cause was filed July 2......
  • Williams v. Williams
    • United States
    • North Carolina Supreme Court
    • March 1, 1944
    ... ... Lee ... v. Lee, supra; Woodruff v. Woodruff, supra; Camire v ... Camire, 43 R.I. 489, 113 A. 748; Pile v. Pile, ... 94 Ky. 308, 309, 22 S.W. 215; Messick v. Messick, ... 177 Ky. 337, 197 S.W. 792, L.R.A.1918A, 1184; Galiano v ... Monteleone, 178 ... ...
  • Bethel v. Bethel
    • United States
    • Missouri Court of Appeals
    • March 3, 1914
    ...provided by statute. 14 Cyc. 1623; Hamaker v. Hamaker, 18 Ill. 137; Tiffany v. Tiffany, 84 Iowa 122; Powell v. Powell, 18 Kan. 371; Pile v. Pile, 94 Ky. 308. Insanity is not an exception to the right to divorce on of the grounds stated in the statutes of Missouri, and can only be made an ex......
  • Dorsey v. Dorsey
    • United States
    • U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit
    • March 13, 1952
    ...of the statutory period. Storrs v. Storrs (N.H., 1894), 68 N.H. 118, 34 Atl.Rep. 672; Nichols v. Nichols, 31 Vt. 328, 331; Pile v. Pile, 94 Ky. 308 22 S.W. 215." 20 App.D.C. at page 541. To like effect is Scogna v. Scogna, 1917, 46 App. D.C. 201, 206. The rule is also well supported by deci......
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