Harrington v. Harrington

BALEY, Judge.

Defendant has raised two defenses against plaintiff’s complaint: abandonment and adultery. Neither is a valid defense in this case, and the District Court properly granted plaintiff’s motion to strike them.

Ordinarily a person cannot obtain a divorce on the ground of a year’s separation if he has brought about the separation by abandoning his spouse. Eubanks v. Eubanks, 273 N.C. 189, 159 S.E. 2d 562; Rupert v. Rupert, 15 N.C. App. 730, 190 S.E. 2d 693, cert. denied, 282 N.C. 153, 191 S.E. 2d 759. But when the spouse who has been abandoned obtains a divorce from bed and board, or…