Walker v. Walker

• Decision Date: 20 October 1898
• Citation: 51 N.E. 455,172 Mass. 82
• Parties: WALKER v. WALKER.
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

172 Mass. 82

51 N.E. 455

WALKER v. WALKER.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Hampshire.

October 20, 1898

COUNSEL

E.H. Lathrop, for libelant.

E.C. Bumpus, for libelee.

OPINION

BARKER, J.

If, as the libelee contends, the letter of the libelant to him of December 15, 1891, with her subsequent conduct until he committed adultery in the year 1892, was a desertion, which, if continued for three years, would have given him ground for divorce, the libelant yet had a locus penitentiae, and under our decisions, after the adultery of the libelee, was under no obligation to return to him, and he cannot set up the desertion in bar of her libel for his adultery committed before her desertion had continued so long as to give him a right to a divorce. Hall v. Hall, 4 Allen, 41; Clapp v. Clapp, 97 Mass. 531. See, also, Handy v. Handy, 124 Mass. 394; Cumming v. Cumming, 135 Mass. 386, 389; Morrison v. Morrison, 142 Mass. 361, 8 N.E. 59; Watts v. Watts, 160 Mass. 464, 467, 36 N.E. 479. Exceptions overruled.