Ward v. Ward

Grubb, J.,

delivering the opinion of the Court:

In this case the petitioner, William C. Ward, prays for a divorce a vinculo from his wife, Mary E. Ward, on the sole ground of willful desertion for two years. Wilful desertion, in the statutory intent and meaning, is the voluntary separation of one of the married parties from the other, or the voluntary refusal to renew a suspended marital relation, without justification either in the consent or wrongful conduct of the other. The onus is on the plaintiff satisfactorily to prove all the constituent elements of the alleged wilful desertion. If he…