Peed v. Peed

Henderson, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. The appeal in this case is from a decree denying a divorce to a wife and also to a husband on his cross-bill, each charging desertion and cruelty. Both parties appealed, but the wife did not press her appeal. The husband’s appeal also challenges the award of support for the two children, whose custody was given to the wife, as excessive.

The gravamen of the husband’s complaint is that, although he continued to occupy the same dwelling until shortly before the trial and for more than 18 months after the alleged cessation of marital relations, the wife deserted him by her persistent refusal to have marital relations. Quite apart from the lack of corroboration, we think the Chancellor’s finding that the cessation of marital relations was not solely the fault of the wife, was supported by the evidence. A reading of the record discloses bickering over money, name calling and outbursts of temper on both sides, but it shows that the husband was only too ready and willing to accept the cessation of relations after the wife had asked him on one occasion in strictest privacy, whether he had been unfaithful to her. He replied: “This is the last time you will humiliate me,” and by his own admission he made no effort at reconciliation for the next eighteen months.

It it too well settled to require citation of authority that sallies of passion, rudeness, and even occasional acts of physical violence, do not constitute legal cruelty where not carried to dangerous extremes. Since the Chancellor’s findings are supported by the evidence we