Opinion
12-15-1890
DISBROUGH v. DISBROUGH.
M. R. Sooy, for complainant. Geo. M. Robeson, for defendant.
On bill for divorce. Motion for alimony pendente lite.
M. R. Sooy, for complainant. Geo. M. Robeson, for defendant.
BIRD, V. C. The bill in this case charges that immediately after the marriage the parties began to keep house and occupied the same bed for one week, and that after that, for about one week, the husband separated himself from his wife, and slept in an adjoining room, with the door between the two rooms open, and that from thence onward he closed and locked the said door, and continued to sleep in a separate room. He very soon refused to allow his wife to cook for him, providing his own food in large quantities. The wife had previously been married, and had children of full age living. When one or more of these children visited her he conversed with them respecting their mother, using very vile, indecent, and opprobrious epithets. To one of the neighbors, in speaking of his wife, he said he would make it so hot that she would be compelled to leave. On one occasion he took a counselor at law with him to their house, and charged the wife with having administered poison. He afterwards procured her arrest upon this charge. She gave bail for her appearance at the next term of the court, but he never prosecuted the charge against her, and has never withdrawn the accusation. On a bill for divorce upon the ground of cruelty, I think sufficient appears to justify the court in allowing alimony pendente lite. It may be that the allegations in the bill, supported as they are by the affidavits annexed to the petition asking for the alimony, do not, in all respects, come within the cases of Close v. Close, 25 N. J Eq. 526, and Smith v. Smith, 33 N. J. Eq. 458, and also 40 N. J. Eq. 566, 5 Atl. Rep. 109; yet I think the broad and general expressions employed by the court of last resort in those cases in every way warrant the court in this case in allowing alimony during the litigation. Of course in this case, as in every other in proceedings for divorce, either party is at liberty to apply for further or other relief at any time. I will advise an order directing the payment of $5 per week alimony from the tiling of the petition, and a counsel fee of $50.