King v. King

STONE, Judge.

On September 30, 1963, plaintiff Anna Maydeen King instituted this action hy the filing of her petition for separate maintenance. On the next day, defendant Everett King filed his answer and cross-hill, in which he sought a decree of divorce a vinculo matrimonii, i. e., an absolute divorce, on the sole statutory ground that plaintiff Maydeen “[had] absented * * * herself without a reasonable cause for the space of one year” [V.A.M.S. § 452.010], which is “the legal equivalent of ‘desertion’ as defined in textbooks and reported cases” [Nolker v. Nolker, Mo. (banc), 257 S.W. 798,…