Bradshaw v. Bradshaw

Delaplaine, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. Marvin P. Bradshaw, now a resident of the District of Columbia, is appealing here from a decree of the Circuit Court for Montgomery County granting his wife, Bessie P. Bradshaw, of Silver Spring, a divorce a mensa et thoro and permanent alimony at the rate of $210 per month. The parties, who formerly lived in Illinois, were married in Washington in 1935. At that time defendant was earning only $1,260 a year.

For two years he took a course in accountancy at Benjamin Franklin University in Washington, attending classes there in the morning, and working in the afternoon and at night. After graduation he obtained the position of treasurer of the Washington Institute of Technology, located at College Park, which paid him a salary of $10,000 for a time during the war. The couple moved to Silver Spring in 1941. In July, 1945, complainant, upon returning from a visit ³²⁴ to her mother in Illinois, noticed a decided change in her husband.

He was exceedingly nervous and irritable. For some years he had been suffering from stomach trouble, which required him to live on a strict diet, and his work during the years of the war had been a heavy strain upon him. In the Summer of 1945 he decided to sleep on the cot in the den. He claimed that if he was the first to go to bed, his wife would waken him and he had great difficulty in getting back to sleep.

Complainant begged him to come back to their bedroom. She tried to reason with him, but he refused to talk to her. On September 30 he took his clothes and left, declaring that he was going to stay at the Ebbitt Hotel. He has been living in Washington ever since.

Defendant testified that he can now sleep better, and that he has gained in weight. He stated that, after he worked during the day, he needed rest in the evening; but that his wife enjoyed herself during the day, and when she did her housework in the evening, the noise made him more nervous. He also stated that his wife, instead of letting him alone, followed him and nagged him. He also complained because she invited some old friends from Illinois to visit them, and they kept him from his repose.

He declared that he wants his freedom and he will never live with his wife again. In this State the court of equity may decree a divorce a mensa et thoro for abandonment and desertion. In all cases where such a divorce is decreed, it may be revoked at any time thereafter by the court upon the joint application of the parties to be discharged from the operation of the decree. Code 1939, art. 16, sec. 41.

This Court has often stated that the law of Maryland does not countenance the separation of a husband and wife except for grave and weighty causes. The State has a vital interest in avoiding dissolution of the marital relation except upon the clearest and most convincing proof that it is impossible for the parties to discharge the duties of married life. Kline v. Kline, 179 Md. 10 , 16 A. 2d 924, 926 . No misconduct of the wife will justify ³²⁵ her husband in deserting her unless it is such as makes it impossible for him to continue to live with her without loss of his health or self-respect, or is such as will cause reasonable apprehension of bodily suffering.

Schwartz v. Schwartz, 158 Md. 80 148 A. 259 . It is the settled law of this State that nagging and even the use of vulgar and abusive language do not amount to such excessively vicious conduct or cruelty of treatment as will justify one spouse in deserting the other. Porter v. Porter, 168 Md. 296, 303 , 177 A. 464 ; Hyatt v. Hyatt, 173 Md. 693 , 196 A. 317 ; Miller v. Miller, 185 Md. 79 , 42 A. 2d 915 . Even where a husband leaves