A History of Matrimonial Institutions, Vol. 3 of 3

by George Elliott Howard

[11] Act of Feb. 18, 1829: Laws of the Com. of Mass., 1828-31 (1831), 83, 84.

[12] The causes of divorce a mensa et thoro remain unaltered in Rev. Stat. of the Com. of Mass., 1835 (1836), 480.

[13] Supp. to Gen. Stat. of the Com. of Mass., 1860-72, I (2d ed., Boston, 1873), 871 (act of June 23, 1870).

[14] Rev. Stat. (1836), 480. Impotency is also sanctioned; but this was already allowed by the act of 1786.

[15] Act of April 17, 1838: Laws of the Com. of Mass. (1838), 415.

[16] Act of March 20, 1850: Supp. to Rev. Stat., 1836-53, I, 592.

[17] Act of May 9, 1867: Supp. to Gen. Stat. of the Com. of Mass., 1860-72, I, 565, 566. Cf. 98 Mass. Reports, 408; 104 ibid., 567.

[18] See above chap. xi, sec. iii, d).

[19] So by an act of 1870 the decree nisi may in three years and shall in five years be made absolute, upon proof of the parties living separate during the period; if they live together, the decree nisi becomes void: Supp. to Gen. Stat., 1860-72, I, 871. This act was repealed in 1873: Supp. to Gen. Stat., 1873-77, II, 104; but the interval in case of a decree for desertion was then fixed at three years: ibid., 104. In the next year the act of 1867 was amended by adding, "but a decree of divorce when personal service is made on the libellee, or when the libel for divorce shall have been entered at a term prior to the term granting a decree of divorce, shall be a decree absolute, and not nisi": ibid., II, 306 (June 30, 1874). On May 19, 1875, the interval fixed by the law of 1870 was restored: three years on petition of the libellant; five years on petition of either party: ibid., II, 364. But in 1881 it was again made six months on the petition of either party: Acts and Resolves (1881), 563. The next year the law was slightly modified in the details of procedure, the six months' interval being retained: ibid. (1882), 178, 179; amending chap. 146, Pub. Stat. of the Com. of Mass. (1882), 813, 815.

[20] Act of May 2, 1893: Acts and Resolves (1893), 916, amending slightly another act of the same year: ibid., 829, 830. Cf. Rev. Laws (1902), II, 1355.