A very curious case was heard on Tuesday in the
Queen's Bench Division of the High Court. The plaintiff, Sarah Phillips, married a Mr. Barnet more than six years ago. He beat her, thereby, she says, permanently injuring her, and she was divorced from him, on the ground of adultery and cruelty. She now, as a single woman, sued him for damages, and her counsel argued that as she could when a wife indict her husband for violence, so she could, as a divorcee, bring an action for damages. The Judges, however, decided that man and wife can bring no civil action against each other, being in the eye of the law one person, and that divorce did not revive their right as if they had continued single persons. The divorce did not destroy the marriage ab initio, but only destroyed it for the future. The point raised is said to be perfectly novel, and the decision is important, as otherwise, a divorce suit might be followed up by all manner of actions, intended chiefly to gratify domestic hatred.
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