This section is from the book "Popular Law Library Vol4 Torts, Damages, Domestic Relations", by Albert H. Putney. Also available from Amazon: Popular Law-Dictionary.
The courts upon granting a decree for divorce may make provisions for the payment of certain sums of money for the support of the wife and minor children.
States. | Residence Required. | Causes for Absolute Divorce. In addition to adultery which is couse for divorce in all the States* |
Indaho ............ | 6 mos. | Cruelty, desertion one year, neglect one year, habitual drunkenness one year, felony, insanity. |
Illinois .................. | 1 year. | Desertion two years, habitual drunkenness two years, former existing marriage, cruelty, felony, physical incapacity, attempt on life of other party, divorced party cannot marry for two years. |
Indiana ................ | 2 years. | Abandonment two years, cruelty, habitual drunkenness, failure to provide two years, felony, physical incapacity. |
Iowa ............... | 1 year. | Desertion two years, felony, habitual drunkenness, cruelty, pregnance of wife by other than husband at marriage. |
Kansas ................. | 1 year. | Abandonment one year, cruelty, fraud, habitual drunkenness, gross neglect of duty, felony, physical incapacity pregnance of wife by other than husband at marriage. |
Kentucky ......... | 1 year. | Separation five years, desertion one year, felony, physical incapacity, loathsome disease, habitual drunkenness one year, cruelty, force, fraud, or duress in obtaining marriage joining religious sect believing marriage unlawful, pregnancy of wife by other than husband at marriage or subsequent unchaste behavior, ungovernable temper. |
Louisiana ........... | Felony, habitual drunkenness, excesses, cruelty, public defamation of other party, abandonment five years, attempt on life of other party, fugitive from justice. | |
Maine ................. | 1 year. | Cruelty, desertion three years, physical incapacity, habits of intoxication by liquors, opium, or other drugs, neglect to provide. |
Maryland ........... | 2 years. | Abandonment three years, unchastity of wife before marriage, physical incapacity, any cause which renders the marriage null and void ab initio. |
Massachusetts. . | 3 - 5 - years | Cruelty, desertion three years, habits of intoxication by liquors, opium or other drugs, neglect to provide, physical incapacity, imprisonment for felony, uniting for three years with religious sect believing marriage unlawful. |
Michigan ........... | 2 years | Felony, desertion two years, habitual drunkenness, physical incapacity, and in the discretion of the Court for cruelty or neglect to provide. |
Minnesota ........ | 1 year. | Desertion one year, habitual drunkenness by liquors or opium, cruelty, physical incapacity, imprisonment for felony. |
Missouri .......... | 1 year. | Felony, absence one year, habitual drunkenness one year, cruelty, indignities, vagrancy, former existing marriage, physical incapacity, conviction of felony prior to marriage unknown to other party, wife pregnant by other than husband at marriage. |
Montana ............. | 1 year. | Cruelty, desertion, neglect one year, habitual drunkenness one year, felony. |
Nebraska ............ | 6 mos. | Abandonment two years, habitual drunkenness, physical incapacity-, felony failure to support two years, cruelty. |
Nevada ............. | 6 mos. | Desertion one year, felony, habitual drunkenness, physical incapacity, cruelty, neglect to provide one year. |
•Exclusive of South Carolina, which has no divorce law.
This is called alimony. The collection of alimony may be enforced by punishing the husband for contempt of court, if he fails to pay it. The court in granting a divorce may also make provisions as to the custody of the children.4
 
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