The time of residence for the petitioner is three years in the District of Columbia; and two years in Florida.[308] It is also two years in Tennessee, although the acts complained of were committed out of the state, or the petitioner lived out of the state at the time, and no matter where the defendant resides. A decree of divorce in a foreign state granted to a citizen of Tennessee who has merely temporarily transferred his residence there is void and will not be recognized.[309] In Maryland, since 1842, a divorce will not be granted when the cause occurs outside of the state, unless either the plaintiff or the defendant has resided in the state for the two preceding years.[310] By the North Carolina act of 1814 a stringent rule was adopted, only a citizen resident in the state for three years being allowed to sue.[311] At present the plaintiff must show that the facts constituting the ground for divorce have existed for at least six months prior to filing the complaint, and that he has been a resident of the state for the preceding two years; and if the wife be plaintiff, she may set forth "that the husband is removing or about to remove his property and effects from the state, whereby she may be disappointed in her alimony."[312] But in case of desertion the term of previous residence is five years. The period of previous residence for the plaintiff is six months in the state and county in Texas;[313] one year within the territory in New Mexico, Arizona, and Oklahoma;[314] while in Missouri it is one year, unless the offense or injury complained of was committed within the state, or when one or both of the persons resided there. In all cases when the proceedings are ex parte, the court "shall, before granting the divorce, require proof of the good conduct of the petitioner and be satisfied that he or she is an innocent or injured" person.[315] In Arkansas and Indian Territory the plaintiff must "allege and prove" (1) "residence in the state for one year next before the commencement of the action:" (2) that the cause of divorce occurred or existed in the state, or, if out of the state, either that it was a legal cause there or that the applicant's residence was then in the state; (3) that the cause of divorce occurred or existed within five years before the suit began.[316] One year's residence is likewise required in Porto Rico, unless the act complained of was committed in the island or while one of the consorts resided there.[317]
A few of the states under consideration have adopted special provisions governing notice to the defendant. Thus in Louisiana, "when the defendant is absent, or incapable of acting for any cause, an attorney shall be appointed to represent him, against whom, contradictorily, the suit shall be prosecuted."[318] In North Carolina, if personal service cannot be made, the court may order service by publication, as in any other actions.[319] By the law of Tennessee, process is authorized as in chancery cases. If the wife is the petitioner, the suit may be heard and decided without service, either personal or by publication, if the bill was filed and the subpoena placed in the hands of the sheriff of the county in which the suit is instituted three months before the time when the subpœna is returnable; but the officer having the subpœna shall execute it if he can.[320] In New Mexico service of process can be made by publication after obtaining an order from a judge of the supreme court, based on an affidavit showing the present residence of the defendant, if known, or last known place of residence, and efforts made to ascertain the present residence. The order for publication shall direct that a copy of the summons be mailed to the present or last known residence of the defendant, and may direct such other means of bringing the action to the knowledge of the defendant as the judge shall deem proper.[321] Until recently Florida had a still different law. If the defendant is absent from the state, so that ordinary process cannot be served, or, if served, he cannot be compelled to appear and answer or plead, the court may order a hearing on the bill, a copy of such order to be published in some public newspaper of the state, for the space of three months at least, or for a longer time, if the court shall so direct, or a copy of the bill and order for the hearing, certified by the clerk of the court, shall be actually served upon or delivered to the defendant at least three months before the day fixed for the hearing, or for a longer time, as the court may determine. The present statute, however, directs simply that process be served as in other chancery suits.[322] This is the rule also in Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Indian Territory; likewise in Georgia when the defendant is a non-resident; and in Alabama, where, if the defendant is a non-resident, publication is essential.[323] In the District of Columbia process is according to the usual course of equity and the rules adopted by the court. Missouri requires process as in other civil actions; and this is the law in the remaining states and territories of the group.[324]
The miscellaneous provisions are much the same as in the other parts of the United States. Usually, in case of divorce, the legitimacy of the children is expressly acknowledged.[325] Sometimes provision is made for trial by jury, as in Georgia, Texas, and North Carolina;[326] or it is carefully forbidden, as in Kentucky;[327] and the law may permit the woman to resume her maiden name, as in Arkansas, Kentucky, Indian Territory, Oklahoma, Mississippi, and the District of Columbia.[328] Furthermore, in the District of Columbia, a disinterested attorney must be assigned to resist the decree in uncontested cases, or in any suit when the court sees fit;[329] and similar laws exist in Louisiana and Kentucky. Arbitration in place of judicial divorce is prohibited in Louisiana;[330] the married persons are allowed to be witnesses in Texas, Oklahoma, North Carolina,[331] and formerly in Florida; and occasionally provision is made for the annulment of the decree by further process before the courts.[332]
d) Alimony, property, and custody of children.—The statutes of these states contain the usual provisions for the protection and support of the wife and children during the suit for divorce; and sometimes the husband is required to furnish money to defray the wife's expenses in the same. The Virginia law authorizes the court in term or the judge in vacation to make an order compelling the "man to pay any sums necessary for the maintenance of the woman and to enable her to carry on the suit, or to prevent him from imposing any restraint on her personal liberty, or to provide for the custody and maintenance of the minor children" during the litigation. In the same way steps may be taken to preserve the estate of the husband, "so that it may be forthcoming to meet any decree," even compelling him to give security to abide by the decision.[333] North Carolina also grants the wife alimony pendente lite; but an order allowing it shall not be made "unless the husband shall have had five days' notice;" and in all cases of application for alimony it is admissible for him to be heard by affidavit in answer to the allegations made by the complainant. If he has abandoned his wife and left the state, or is in parts unknown, or is about to remove or dispose of his property for the purpose of defeating her claims, a notice is not required.[334] Arkansas and Indian Territory allow similar support during the suit, including attorney's fees.[335] By the Louisiana statute, "if the wife who sues for a separation" from bed and board, or for a divorce, "has left or declared her intention to leave the dwelling of her husband, the judge shall assign the house wherein she shall be obliged to dwell until the determination of the suit." She "shall be subject to prove her said residence as often as she may be required to do so, and in case she fails so to do, every proceeding on the separation shall be suspended." She is entitled to alimony pendente lite, if she constantly resides in the house assigned; and during the action, for the preservation of her rights, she may require an inventory and appraisement to be made of the property in the husband's possession and demand an injunction restraining him from disposing of any part thereof. After the commencement of the suit the husband may not contract a debt on account of the community, nor sell the immovables belonging to the same; such alienation being void, if made "with the fraudulent view of injuring the rights of the wife." Custody of the children of the marriage, "whose provisional keeping is claimed by both husband and wife," belongs to the husband, whether plaintiff or defendant, "unless there shall be strong reasons to deprive him of it;" but when a separation from bed and board has been decreed, the "children shall be placed under the care of the party who shall have obtained the separation, unless the judge shall, for the greater advantage of the children and with the advice of the family meeting, order that some or all" of them be intrusted to the other spouse. In all cases of full divorce "the minor children shall be placed under the tutorship of the party who shall have obtained" the decree.[336]
Permanent alimony and the custody of the children after dissolution of marriage are generally provided for. Sometimes the wife is granted separate alimony without a decree of divorce, as in Virginia, Florida, Georgia, and Oklahoma.[337] From an early period the North Carolina statutes have been conspicuous for the relief granted to the wife after divorce, or, under certain circumstances, without formal separation. Thus by the act of 1814 the court may grant a woman having a limited divorce for cruelty or abandonment such alimony as the husband's means will admit, not exceeding either one-third of his real or personal estate or a like share of the annual profits of his estate, occupation, or labor.[338] The deserted wife gains still further protection in 1816. "Whereas," declares an act of that year, "cases of great hardship often occur, the husband being at liberty to return and squander away the estate of the wife, subsequently obtained;" to remedy the evil it is therefore enacted that in future the decree of separation from bed and board shall have the effect of securing to the wife "any property which she may subsequently obtain, either by her own labor, gift, devise, or operation of law, unless the court shall in their judgment otherwise order."[339] Furthermore, in 1828-29 the courts were authorized to grant the wife separate alimony without divorce "whenever a man shall become an habitual drunkard or spendthrift, wasting his substance to the impoverishment of his family."[340] The present law is conceived in the spirit of these early enactments. In case of separation from bed and board, the amount of alimony is the same as in 1814. Separate maintenance without a divorce is still allowed. "When any husband shall separate himself from his wife and fail to provide her with the necessary subsistence according to his means and condition in life, or if he shall be a drunkard or spendthrift, the wife may apply for a special proceeding to the judge of the superior court for the county in which he resides, to have a reasonable subsistence secured to her and to the children of the marriage." Finally it may be noted that alimony may be decreed to the husband as well as the wife in Virginia and West Virginia.
Measures are taken in nearly every state for the division or other disposal of property after separation or divorce. The North Carolina law is very elaborate. "Every woman who shall be living separate from her husband, either upon a judgment of divorce ... or under a deed of separation, executed by said husband and wife, and registered in the county in which she resides, or whose husband shall have been declared an idiot or a lunatic, shall be deemed and held ... a free trader, and shall have power to convey her personal estate and her real estate without the assent of the husband." So also "every woman whose husband shall abandon her, or shall maliciously turn her out of doors, shall be deemed a free trader, so far as to be competent to contract and be contracted with, and to bind her separate property, but the liability of the husband for her reasonable support shall not thereby be impaired, and she shall have power to convey" her real and personal estate without her husband's assent. When a marriage is dissolved a vinculo, each of the parties loses all right to any estate by courtesy or dower, and all right to a year's provision or a distributive share in the personal property of the other, or to administer on the other's estate, and all rights whatsoever in the other's estate gained by settlement in consideration of the marriage. But if a "married woman shall elope with an adulterer, or shall wilfully and without just cause abandon her husband and refuse to live with him, and shall not be living with" him at his death; or if a limited divorce be granted on the husband's petition, "she shall thereby lose all right to dower in the lands and tenements of her husband, and also all right to a year's provision." In such cases the husband may convey his real estate as if he were unmarried, and the wife is thereafter barred of all claims to dower. When the husband is guilty of a similar offense, and his conduct is not condoned by the wife, or in case a partial divorce has been granted on her application, he shall suffer the like penalties.[341]
In Missouri a divorce obtained by the wife is considered in law as the death of the husband, and she is looked upon as his widow; but when at fault she is barred of dower.[342] The guilty wife loses her right of dower also in Tennessee; and there she cannot claim permanent alimony. In the same state, when divorce is for the wife's infidelity, and the woman afterwards cohabits with her paramour, she is made "incapable of alienating, directly or indirectly, any of her lands;" and after her death these are to be distributed according to the rules of intestate inheritance.[343] Dower is barred by grant of permanent alimony in Georgia;[344] and in Louisiana, in case of separation from bed and board, the defendant loses "all the advantages or donations" which the plaintiff "may have conferred by the marriage contract or since," while the latter preserves all those to which he or she would otherwise have been entitled; and these dispositions are to take place even when the advantages and donations were "reciprocally made."[345]
Finally it must be noted as a matter of regret that in no instance in these states has any provision been made for the registration of divorces or the return and publication of divorce statistics.