Caswell v. Caswell

• Decision Date: 24 June 1892
• Parties: LAURA A. CASWELL v. JAMES SHERMAN CASWELL
• Court: Vermont Supreme Court

24 A. 988

64 Vt. 557

LAURA A. CASWELL v. JAMES SHERMAN CASWELL

Supreme Court of Vermont

June 24, 1892

MAY TERM, 1892

Petition for divorce. Heard at the September term, 1891, Start, J., presiding. Petition denied. The petitioner excepts.

The decree is affirmed.

S. C. Shurtleff, for the petitionee.

Present: TAFT, ROWELL, TYLER AND MUNSON, JJ.

OPINION

TAFT

To entitle one to relief in a divorce court, the party must come with clean hands. It is a general doctrine that a man shall not complain of what he knew, or, might have known at the time of the marriage. At the time of the marriage the libellant knew, or had good reason to believe, that the libellee would be sentenced to life imprisonment in the State prison under a prior conviction of murder. When one marries a State prison convict it is trifling with the law, for the party to say, she did not know that sentence would follow conviction. A slight delay would have given the knowledge.