Mental deficiency and divorce

^ husband's

petition for divorce failed because the judge ruled that

Cental deficiency, the basis for the petition, did not constitute being

incurably

of unsound mind' within the Matrimonial Causes Act.

B"t in another case a judge ruled that a mental defective was within tl?e definition of persons of unsound mind.

By

Donald Ellison

(Barrister at ft 1939, a Law).

husband, then aged 20, married a girl aged The wife gave birth to four children, in 1941, 44, 1946 and 1949. In 1947 she began to behave in

'?

a

strange way. She became a voluntary patient at a Rental hospital. After treatment for six months she re-

rned home. In 1949, she began to behave strangely a?ain and made a serious attempt to commit suicide. e

taken to hospital, where she was certified and under the Lunacy and Mental Treatment and had remained in hospital ever since. I e husband petitioned for divorce on the ground i at the wife was f 'incurably of unsound mind' within ; (1) of the Matrimonial Causes Act, 1950. The s 'te, by the Official Solicitor as her guardian ad litem, i' ??ntested the suit on the ground that she was not f unsound mind within the meaning of term as use