Goodhues v. Goodhues

Fowler, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. This is a bill for divorce a mensa et thoro filed by the wife against the husband. The grounds relied on are cruelty of treatment, desertion and abandoment. We are all of opinion that the allegations of the bill are not sustained.

Undoubtedly the plaintiff’s testimony taken alone sustains both of the grounds on which she relies ; but, so far from being corroborated, as she must be to make her testimony the basis of a decree {Article jf, sec. j, of the Code), she is flatly contradicted on every material point except one. This condition of the proof is apparent upon an examination of the record, and it would serve no ²⁹³ good purpose to examine the testimony in detail. The one particular in which she is corroborated is the alleged fact that her husband on one occasion kicked her. Assuming, which we do, however, only for the sake of the argument, that this one act of cruelty is established by satisfactory and legal evidence, it would not be sufficient to justify a dissolution of the marriage tie. “This single act of violence on his part, though it cannot be justified in morals or in law, did not constitute “cruelty of treatment” within the meaning of the law, as a cause for divorce a mensa et thoro." Hoshall v. Hoshall, 51 Md. 75 .