Fedder v. Fedder

Horney, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. The basic question presented by this appeal is whether the actions of the parties during the more than eighteen-months period they had lived separate and apart were legally sufficient to justify an absolute divorce on the theory that there had been a mutual separation. Lewis Fedder married Alice Fedder in December of 1960. It was the second marriage for both and no children were born of their marriage.

They separated in December of 1963 and never lived together thereafter. According to the husband, his wife became disenchanted with their marriage long before the final separation. She accused him of infidelity and he was unable to convince her that her suspicions were groundless. The separation began when the wife moved his personal effects out of their apartment in Adelphi into their automobile and telephoned him at his office in Frederick that he could get his belongings from the automobile whenever he desired but that he was not to enter the apartment again. ¹⁶⁴ He went to live with his sister and brother-in-law in Baltimore.

A day or so later he and the brother-in-law retrieved his clothes and personal effects from the automobile where the wife had placed them. Sometime thereafter he got an apartment with his mother. According to the wife, her husband moved into the apartment she owned and had maintained with her minor daughter prior to the marriage. They got along well for a period of time until an uneasy atmosphere developed between them which led to a ■distrustful situation.

Eventually, the wife, fearing for her life as the result of constant harassment and physical abuse, left the .apartment and sought other living accommodations. Thereafter, she filed a bill for a partial divorce on the ground of constructive desertion, and the husband, in answer thereto, filed a cross-'.bill claiming that the parties had mutually agreed to separate. More than two years thereafter, the wife filed a belated supplemental bill for alimony. When the case came on for trial the wife did not appear and the case proceeded without her.

The husband testified that he was in love with his wife and earnestly tried to bring about a reconciliation a number of times. He thought he had prevailed upon her to reconcile on Christmas Eve 1963, but when he arrived in Adelphi bearing gifts he found himself locked out of the apartment and again accused by his wife of infidelity. He ■continued his efforts for a reconciliation, although less frequently, until the middle of February 1964 when, coming to the conclu.■sion that further efforts were useless, he accepted the separation as final and prepared to terminate the marital relationship. Toward that end he visited his wife while she was confined in a Washington hospital for minor surgery.

At the conclusion of the visit he told her he would not be seeing her again and she indicated that a mutual parting was agreeable to her. That was the last time they saw each other. His brother-in-law had