[472] Act of Feb. 2: _Laws_ (1878), 1, 2; also _Rev. Stat. of Utah_ (1898), 333, 334.
By an act of 1853 the legislature of Oregon Territory allows divorce petitions presented under oath to be determined by the district court of the county in which the cause occurs, or in which the defendant resides or is found, or in which the plaintiff resides, if in this last case it be either the county in which the parties last cohabited or that in which the plaintiff has resided for six months next preceding the action. Absolute divorce in favor of the aggrieved is permitted on ten grounds. These are (1) impotence continuing since marriage; (2) adultery committed since marriage and remaining unforgiven; (3) bigamous contract; (4) compulsion or gross fraud in procuring the marriage, if a rescission be sought in a reasonable time after removal of the restraint or discovery of the fraud; (5) wilful desertion for two years without reasonable cause; (6) conviction of felony or infamous crime; (7) habitual gross drunkenness contracted since marriage; (8) harsh and cruel treatment; (9) personal indignities rendering life burdensome; (10) six months' voluntary neglect of the husband to provide the wife with a home and the common necessaries of life.[475] This statute was, however, of short duration. In 1854 the third and fourth causes were dropped; bigamous contracts and those entered into through compulsion or fraud being now properly treated as grounds for annulment of void or voidable marriages. The remaining eight causes recognized in 1853 were retained, except that the term of wilful desertion was reduced to one year; and a period of one year was likewise fixed in case of voluntary neglect to provide.[476] Eight years later neglect to provide ceased to be a legal ground of complaint. At the same time it was enacted that "habitual gross drunkenness" to constitute a cause must exist for two years immediately before the commencement of the suit; and the period of wilful desertion was extended to three years.[477]
[475] Act of Feb. 1, 1853: _Gen. Laws of Ore._ (1852-53), 49-51.
[476] Act of Jan. 17, 1854: _Stat. of Ore._ (1853-54), 494-97. _Cf._ also the same, _ibid._ (1854-55), 536-41.