Home > Journals > Michigan Law Review > MLR > Volume 29 > Issue 2 (1930)
Abstract
If both parties have a right to divorce, neither party has. This judicial pronouncement, paradoxical and puzzling as it must seem, at least to the lay mind, nevertheless embodies the kernel of the doctrine of recrimination as it is applied in divorce cases by modem courts. One party seeks divorce and proves beyond doubt that he or she is entitled to relief. But, if it is found that the complaining party too, is guilty of conduct for which a divorce may be granted, the court turns a deaf ear to both. For, in the oft quoted words of Chancellor Wallworth, the parties in that case are suitable and proper companions for each other. The law refuses to destroy their marriage relationship under these conditions despite the fact that the double offense renders slight the chance that the marriage will be of further social value. The venture is left a derelict for the parties to salvage as best they can.
Recommended Citation
DIVORCE - RECRIMINATION AS A DEFENSE,
29
Mich. L. Rev.
232
(1930).
Available at:
https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol29/iss2/8