Rouse v. Rouse

Each of defendant’s assignments of error presents this question: Does a judgment in .an action instituted under G.S. 50-16 decreeing that the husband has wilfully abandoned the wife and awarding her support and maintenance constitute a judicial separation which, two years thereafter, will permit the husband to obtain an absolute divorce? The answer is YES.

As pointed out by Bobbitt, J., in Richardson v. Richardson, 257 N.C. 705, 127 S.E. 2d 525: “According to our decisions, the effect of a divorce a mensa et thoro, obtained by the wife on the ground her husband abandoned her, is to legalize…