Harris v. Harris

Citations

• 31 Va. 13

Syllabus

<p>1. Alimony had its origin in the legal obligations of the husband, incident to the marriage state, to maintain his wife in a manner suited to his means and social position, and although it is her right, she may by her misconduct forfeit it; and when she is the- offender, she cannot have alimony on a divorce decreed in favor of the husband. So long as he has committed no breach of marital duty, he is under no obligation to provide her a separate maintenance, for she cannot claim it on the ground of her own misconduct.</p> <p>2. According to the ecclesiastical law no alimony was allowable on a decree a vinculo matrimonii. And if under the Virginia statute the court has a discretion, upon decreeing such a divorce, to allow alimony to the wife, that discretion should be exercised upon the sanie principles which govern in a ease of divorce from bed and’board.</p> <p>3. The circumstances must be very peculiar indeed, if any such case there could be, which justifying a decree for an absolute divorce in behalf of the husband for wilful desertion of the wife, would at the same time warrant a decree in her behalf, that he should out of his own .estate maintain her as long as she lived, although after the divorce she should become the wife of another.</p> <p>4. The wife having left her husband in 1863, upon the ground that he would not control his servants and maintain her rightful authority as his wife, the husband is entitled to a decree for a divorce a vinculo matrimonii on the ground of desertion, on a bill filed by him in 1S77. And the wife having left her husband without'any sufficient cause, the court upon decreeing the divorce cannot allow her alimony out of the husband’s estate.</p>