Powless v. Powless

A voluntary separation authorizing a divorce can exist only where the parties have voluntarily lived separate for five years. Sec. 247.07 (7) of the statutes provides:

“Whenever the husband and wife shall have voluntarily lived entirely separate for the space of five years next preceding the commencement of the action, the same may be granted at the suit of either party. . . .”

The separation must be mutually voluntary. The mutuality cannot exist where a wife was compelled to leave her husband by circumstances over which she had no control, a fact which was determined by judicial decree in the…