Woods v. Woods

This is not the first time Arkansas has recognized the concept of divisible divorce. In Rice v. Rice, 213 Ark. 981, 214 S.W.2d 235 (1948), we held that a husband who had obtained an Arkansas divorce upon constructive service and without provision for alimony was not allowed to assert the divorce as a bar to the wife’s action for arrearages arising from a prior New York decree for separate maintenance of which the husband had had notice. The doctrine of divisible divorce was developed in Estin v. Estin, 334 U.S. 541 (1948), a case which had very close facts to the Rice case and which we used…