No further legislation on the subject appears until 1813, when some important changes in the law were made. Now a petition for divorce, on the same grounds, may be brought only when the persons concerned were inhabitants of the state at the time the offense was committed; or when the marriage was solemnized or took place in the state, and the person injured was an actual resident of the state at the time of the offense and at the time of exhibiting the bill. The facts are to be tried by a "special or foreign" jury at some circuit court or sittings, to be held by a justice of the supreme court; and the person convicted is prohibited from further marriage only during the lifetime of the other spouse. But the most important innovation made by this act is the provision for partial divorce in favor of the wife. Under the same conditions as to residence, the court of chancery is empowered to grant a _feme covert_ a decree of "separation from bed and board forever thereafter, or for a limited time, as shall seem just and reasonable," when the husband has been guilty (1) of cruel and inhuman treatment; or (2) of such conduct "as may render it unsafe and improper for her to cohabit with him, and be under his dominion and control;" or (3) when he has abandoned her and neglected or refused to provide for her support. In all such cases, if the defendant prove the ill conduct of the complainant as a justification, he may be "dismissed with or without costs in the discretion of the court." On the other hand, whether a separation be decreed or not, the court is authorized "to make such orders and decree for the suitable support and maintenance" of the wife and children by the husband or out of his property, as the chancellor shall deem just.[374]
[374] Act of April 13, 1813: VAN NESS AND WOODWORTH, _Laws of N. Y._ (1813), II, 197-201.
The _Revised Statutes_ of 1827-28 make careful provision for the annulment of voidable marriages; and by the same enactment the divorce law is recast. Through sentence of nullity the chancellor may declare void a marriage for the following causes existing at the time of the contract: when (1) either husband or wife was below the age of consent; or (2) had a spouse living under a marriage still in force; or (3) was an idiot or lunatic; or (4) when consent of either was obtained by force or fraud; or (5) when either was physically incompetent to enter the matrimonial state. All these grounds of nullity, with one slight change and some modification of the conditions on which suit may be brought, are sanctioned by the present code.[375] Divorce from the bond of wedlock according to the revision of 1827-28 may be granted on the same conditions regarding residence as those prescribed in 1813, except that it allows the injured person, if an actual inhabitant at the time of exhibiting the bill, to bring suit whenever the offense complained of has been committed in the state. As in 1803, the guilty defendant is forbidden to remarry until after the death of the complainant. The three grounds of separation from bed and board in favor of the wife allowed in that year remain unaltered, save that under the second head the phrase referring to her being under the husband's "dominion and control" is omitted; and now, when the marriage takes place out of the state, the parties must have "become and remained inhabitants" of it for at least one year, and in order to warrant a decree the woman must be an actual resident thereof at the time of bringing complaint.[376]