Roberts v. Roberts
Roberts v. Roberts
Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the court was delivered, by
The exclusion from the evidence of the act of the legislature divorcing these parties from the bond of matrimony, requires a reversal of the judgment. This exclusion assumes that the cause of divorce fell wholly within the jurisdiction of the court, or that no ground whatever existed. But in the opinion in the case of Cronise v. Cronise, just read, we held that a special divorce law is primá. facie evidence that it was passed for some just cause within the province of the legislature, the question whether the cause was actually within the jurisdiction of the court being a subject of proof upon the trial. We have also disposed of the objection made to the power of the legislature to pass a special act of divorce.
Nor does the fact that the law was passed after Mrs. Boberts had instituted this proceeding for a divorce from bed and board, and for alimony, justify the rejection of the evidence. This is to assume that the legislature acted upon the same causes involved in this proceeding. But it does not follow that the legislature must have acted upon the ground set forth in the libel, and not upon those -within the circle of its own power. This was a fact which could not be tested until the act had gone in evidence. There was error therefore in rejecting the evidence. In this case we have another instance of the injustice which may be done both to the judge and to the interests of justice by sending up only so much of the charge as is contained in the answer to the point. Points are generally isolated and often abstract propositions
The judgment is reversed, and a venire de novo is awarded.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Roberts versus Roberts
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