Melia v. Melia

• Decision Date: 07 February 1967
• Docket Number: No. M--66,M--66
• Citation: 94 N.J.Super. 47,226 A.2d 745
• Parties: Margaret MELIA, Plaintiff, v. Larry A. MELIA, a/k/a Lawrence A. Melia, Defendant.
• Court: New Jersey Superior Court

Page 47

94 N.J.Super. 47

226 A.2d 745

Margaret MELIA, Plaintiff, v. Larry A. MELIA, a/k/a Lawrence A. Melia, Defendant.

No. M--66.

Superior Court of New Jersey Chancery Division.

Feb. 7, 1967.

Mario V. Farco, Newark, for plaintiff.

Irvin L. Solondz, Newark, for defendant.

CONSODINE, J.C.C. (temporarily assigned).

Does voluntary and continued addiction to heroin over a period of years, by a dissipator as opposed to a medically adduced addict, with resultant attrition of sexual powers and the refusal of sexual intercourse, warrant an absolute divorce on the ground of extreme cruelty?

Plaintiff sued for divorce on the ground of extreme cruelty. She proved defendant's sexual inability and refusal as a concomitant of volitional and continued heavy heroin addiction, and his rejection of all aid toward overcoming the habit. The result is that her health has been impaired and her life made one of such extreme discomfort and wretchedness as to incapacitate her physically and mentally from discharging her duties as a wife and a mother.

Extreme cruelty, in those words, became a ground for divorce A vinculo by statutory amendment, L.1923, c. 187, § 1, Suppl. to L.1907, c. 216 (N.J.S. 2A:34--2, N.J.S.A.). Previously, only a divorce A mensa et thoro could be had on that ground. Act of December 2, 1794, Paterson's Laws 143. Like any organic act, expressed in generality and infused with large social objectives, the specific content of Divorce Act language was designed to grow with the evolving insights and needs of the times. See Stephenson v. Stephenson, 102 N.J.Eq. 50, 139 A. 721 (E. & A.1927); Hofman v. Hofman, 108 N.J.Eq. 161, 154 A. 518 (Ch.1931).

Generally it has been said: 'The shorter the Law is, the more general must its language be and the greater its need for interpretation.' Bryce, The American Commonwealth, 372 (1897).

It has always been the rule that the grounds for divorce are not closed categories. They must be understood liberally to the end that marriage may fulfill both human needs and social obligations. This flexible dimension of extreme cruelty as a ground for absolute divorce has been confirmed many times. It was long ago decided that the recognition of new causes of extreme cruelty (in that case conduct induced by habitual drunkenness) does not amount to a new cause for divorce. McVickar v. McVickar, 46 N.J.Eq. 490, 497, 19 A. 249 (Ch.1890).

For more recent instances, see Capozzoli v. Capozzoli, 1 N.J. 540, 64 A.2d 440 (1949) (unreasonable sexual demands); MacArthur v. MacArthur, 135 N.J.Eq. 215, 37 A.2d 76 (E. & A.1944) (malicious and wanton charges of infidelity); Golden v. Arons, 36 N.J.Super. 371, 115 A.2d 639 (Ch.Div.1955) (imposition of religious fanaticism); Stolov v. Stolov, 50 N.J.Super. 178, 141 A.2d 545 (App.Div.1958) (malevolence and sadism resulting in serious neurotic state); H. v. H., 59 N.J.Super. 227, 157 A.2d 721, 78 A.L.R.2d 799 (App.Div.1959) (homoerotism); A. v. A., 87 N.J.Super. 440, 209 A.2d 668 (Ch.Div.1965) (onanism).

Conditions which, by modern understanding, abort the human and social objects of marriage are essentially incompatible with the public purposes of marriage. First among these purposes is procreation of the human race, as the fruit of a consensual, libidinal and instinctual relationship. See Lindquist v. Lindquist, 130 N.J.Eq. 11, 20 A.2d 325 (E. & A.1941); Houlahan v. Horzepa, 46 N.J.Super. 583, 135 A.2d 232 (Ch.Div.1957); Bishop, New Commentaries on Marriage, Divorce and Separation, §§ 11, 13 (1891).

Rejection of sex, however it may be accomplished, can turn marriage from a benediction and a fulfillment into a nightmare of frustration, despair and decay. That has been plaintiff's tormented experience. Without self-justification, defendant explains his sexual torpor and denial by saying that he did not love his wife less but loved heroin more.

The touchstone of extreme cruelty is its impact upon the victim. See Friedman v. Friedman, 37 N.J.Super. 52, 116 A.2d 793 (App.Div.1955), which so clearly defines the controlling standard. Given harm of the prescribed degree, willfully or indifferently inflicted through behavior having an accepted causal nexus, and a case of extreme cruelty is made out. This principle differentiates such cases as Gilson v. Gilson, 113 N.J.Eq. 32, 36, 166 A. 111 (E. & A.1933), where it was observed that the refusal of sexual relations is not extreme cruelty but rather desertion. See: Annotation, 'Refusal of Sexual Intercourse as Grounds for Divorce,' 175 A.L.R. 708 (1948).

In modern understanding, a nerve-wracking marriage in a setting of unremitting drug addiction, with sexual separation and denial as a principal consequence, can be extreme cruelty in character and result. See Nunes v. Nunes, 62 Cal.2d 33, 41 Cal.Rptr. 5, 396 P.2d 37 (Cal.Sup.Ct.1964); Annotation, 'Drunkenness, Habitual Intemperance or Use of Drugs as Constituting Cruelty as a Ground for Divorce,' 76 A.L.R.2d 419 (1961). It has been evident, ever since Dominik v. Dominik, 7 N.J. 198, 81 A.2d 147 (1951), that the denial of sexual relations may qualify as extreme cruelty, where the period is more than transitory and there is evidence of any substantial damage to the plaintiff's health. Cf. Morrone v. Morrone, 44 N.J.Super. 305, 310, 130 A.2d 396 (App.Div.1957), where in recognizing that habitual drunkenness alone is not a ground for divorce, the...