[194] Act of March 1, 1842: _Laws_ (1841-42), chap. 262.
[196] _Laws_ (1846-47), chap. 340 (act of March 10, 1847); MACKALL, _Maryland Code_ (1861), I, 74, 75. The causes of limited divorce and the other provisions of the act are the same as in that of 1842.
[197] _Laws_ (1888), chap. 486, modifying an act of 1872, chap. 272, which is the basis of the present law in _Code of Md._ (1888), I, 142, 143.
The North Carolina statute of 1814 allows the superior court to grant either kind of divorce (1) for bodily infirmity, or (2) for desertion and living in adultery. Separation from bed and board is likewise sanctioned when "any person shall either abandon his family or maliciously turn his wife out of doors, or by cruel or barbarous treatment endanger her life, or offer such indignities to her person as to render her condition intolerable or life burdensome."
Previous to 1827, as already noted, the judicial decree for partial divorce was final, while that for absolute dissolution of the marriage bond must be confirmed by the assembly. On the abolition of legislative divorce in that year a provision was inserted in the statute which seems to have had the effect of an "omnibus" clause. "All applications for other causes than those specified" in the act of 1814 for either kind of divorce "shall be subject to the rules and regulations provided in said act for the causes therein mentioned," thus giving the judiciary the full range which the assembly had hitherto possessed.[198] Later this clause took a simpler form, the courts being empowered to grant divorces on the grounds named in 1814 and for "any other just cause."[199] Six grounds subsequently added are retained in the present law. The superior courts are now authorized to decree absolute divorce (1) "if either party shall separate from the other and live in adultery;" (2) "if the wife shall commit adultery;" (3) "if either party at the time of the marriage was and still is naturally impotent;" (4) "if the wife at the time of the marriage be pregnant" by some other man and the husband be ignorant of the fact; (5) "if the husband shall be indicted for a felony and flee the state and does not return within one year from the time the indictment is found;" (6) "if after the marriage the wife shall wilfully and persistently refuse" marital duty for twelve months; (7) if either spouse shall abandon the other and live separate and apart for two years; and (8) in favor of the wife, being a citizen of the commonwealth at the time of the marriage, if the husband shall remove with her to another state, and while living with her there shall by cruel or barbarous treatment endanger her life or render her condition intolerable or burdensome, should she return to North Carolina and there reside separate and apart from the husband for the period of twelve months.[200] A divorce from bed and board may be granted (1) if either spouse shall abandon his or her family; (2) or shall maliciously turn the other out of doors; (3) or shall by cruel or barbarous treatment endanger the life of the other; (4) or shall offer such indignities to the person of the other as to render his or her condition intolerable and life burdensome; (5) or shall become a habitual drunkard.[201]