Alimony

“ No matter what the offense of the woman, custom and public opinion demand that every "decent" man permit his wife to accuse him on "just grounds" and to secure the divorce and call on the law to force him to pay her alimony for the rest of their natural lives. ”

“ In like manner, in all the states, the court may make proper orders for the care, custody, and education of the children after the divorce, and for permanent alimony to the wife. In Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts alimony, or an allowance in the nature of alimony, may be decreed to the husband as well as to the wife. ”

“ Alimony does not arise from any business transaction, but from the relation of marriage. It is not founded on contract, express or implied, but on the natural and legal duty of the husband to support the wife. The general obligation to support is made specific by the decree of the court of appropriate jurisdiction. Generally speaking, alimony may be altered by that court at any time, as the circumstances of the parties may require. ”

“ In granting a divorce, full power is given the court over the questions of permanent alimony and custody of children, and the amount of alimony will be determined by a careful consideration of the circumstances of the parties. The allowance is usually for a certain sum of money, but the court may set apart a specific portion of property as alimony. Only in rare cases and under peculiar circumstances will alimony be granted to the party in fault. ”

“ There are two kinds of alimony, the one kind, alimony pendente lite, being an allowance to the wife pending a suit between herself and her husband, and the other the allowance or provision after suit, and which is known as permanent alimony. Exclusive jurisdiction of matrimonial causes was in England formerly vested in ecclesiastical courts. ”

“ So where the wife is supporting herself by her own earnings, this fact will be taken into consideration. And where the wife and husband have lived apart for many years before the institution of the suit, and she has supported herself during the separation, no alimony will be allotted. Nor will the wife be entitled to alimony where she has sufficient means of support independent of her husband. Permanent alimony is that which is allotted to the wife after final decree. ”

“ Furthermore, in 1828-29 the courts were authorized to grant the wife separate alimony without divorce "whenever a man shall become an habitual drunkard or spendthrift, wasting his substance to the impoverishment of his family." ”

“ The husband must support the wife according to his means, or she may have alimony decreed by the court without divorce, or in some cases she may sue directly for support. In case of divorce the wife is entitled to all the property owned by her at marriage and all acquired by her afterwards, alimony being allowed from the real and personal estate of the husband. ”

“ When divorce is granted the husband for the tenth cause, the wife may be allowed alimony according to his circumstances.
By an act of March 9, 1855 (Pub. Laws, 68; Pepper and Lewis, Digest, I, 1636) , the courts of common pleas are given jurisdiction in all cases of divorce "from the bonds of matrimony for the cause of personal abuse, or for such conduct on the part of either the husband or the wife as to render the condition of the other party intolerable and life burdensome, notwithstanding the parties were at the time of the occurring of said causes domiciled in another state;" ”

“ It still holds good. Well, the question I am trying to solve is why did she say: 'No alimony!'"
"'No alimony'?" repeated the colonel, puzzled.
"Yes. Just that. As you may have guessed, it's a divorce case I have just finished, and so quietly that it hasn't become public property yet. When it does it will create a sensation."
"No alimony, eh? I suppose the lady—there is a lady in it, of course?" questioned the colonel.
"Of course—as is usual in a divorce case. And there's no reason you shouldn't know. It's Mrs. Larch, wife of Langford Larch, the wealthy hotel owner. ”

“ Latham, 30 Gratt. 307) ; and since the courts of Virginia hold upon general principles that alimony has its origin in the legal obligation of the husband to maintain his wife, and that although this is her right, she may by her conduct forfeit it, and where she is the offender, she cannot have alimony on a divorce decreed in favor of the husband (Harris v. Harris, 31 Gratt. 13) , it is plain that such a decree forecloses any right of the wife to have alimony or equivalent maintenance from her husband under the law of Virginia. ”

“ Trenor feelingly concluded, "that most of her alimony is paid by other women's husbands!"
Miss Bart, on her way to the station, had leisure to muse over her friend's words, and their peculiar application to herself. Why should she have to suffer for having once, for a few hours, borrowed money of an elderly cousin, when a woman like Carry Fisher could make a living unrebuked from the good-nature of her men friends and the tolerance of their wives? It all turned on the tiresome distinction between what a married woman might, and a girl might not, do. ”

“ Had she been blackmailing her own husband—a husband who had dared marry again, believing his deserted wife to be dead—and justifying herself by calling it "back alimony?"
But—wasn't it, in reality, no matter what coercion Nita had used in getting the money, exactly that?... Back alimony! And the price of her silence before the world and the wife who was not really a wife.... ”

“ But its obligation in that respect does not affect its nature. In other respects, alimony cannot ordinarily be enforced by action at law, but only by application to the court which granted it, and subject to the discretion of that court. Permanent alimony is regarded rather as a portion of the husband's estate to which the wife is equitably entitled than as strictly a debt; alimony from time to time may be regarded as a protion of his current income or earnings ”

“ The husband is required by law to support his family and, on his failure to do so, the court may make such orders as are necessary. If living separate from him, the wife may sue for alimony without divorce if legal cause exist. ”

“ Acts and Resolves, 38, 39, when a married woman files a libel for divorce and prays for alimony, the husband is enjoined from conveying or removing from the state, during pendency of the libel, such portion of his estate as the judge may think necessary to secure alimony, and from concealing or interfering with the property or clothing of the wife and minor children, or such portion of his personal property as may be at the time in her possession. ”

“ May a State deal with the dissolution of a marriage comprehensively, or must it chop up the normal incidents of the cause of action for divorce?
No explanation is vouchsafed why the dissolution of the marital relation is not so 'personal' as to require personal jurisdiction over an absent spouse, while the denial of alimony incident thereto is. Calling alimony a 'personal claim or obligation' solves nothing. ”

“ He accordingly found that 'the defendant is not entitled to receive alimony * * * under the facts and circumstances presented in this case' and recommended 'that no award of alimony be made.' The master's recommendation meant no more than that the question of alimony should not be decided because the wife had in her possession property adequate to meet her immediate needs, and the unresolved litigation made it impossible to determine her future needs. ”

“ His wife certainly would claim alimony, and he always expected to pay it in sums sufficient to enable her and Marjorie to maintain the home; for he was not a man to consider escape from an obligation which he had assumed and never did he dream of repudiating his duty of supporting his wife and child. ”

“ The court said, at page 103 of 220 N.C., at page 675 of 16 S.E.2d:
'The rule in North Carolina is that a judgment awarding alimony is a judgment directing the payment of money by the defendant, and by such judgment the defendant becomes indebted to the plaintiff for such alimony as it falls due, and when the defendant is in arrears in the payment of alimony, the Court may judicially determine the amount due and enter decree accordingly. It has no less dignity than any other contractual obligation. ”

“ For, in case of divorce, the joint earnings of husband and wife belong to the husband, even if he is the guilty party, and if most of their common property has been earned by the wife. But the woman is entitled to alimony, according to her station, only if it can be shown that she is not able to maintain her standard of living by means of her own property or earnings. ”

“ The wife is then allowed a complete divorce when her husband is in the army or navy of the United States or resides in one of the United States in preference to one of the states of the Confederacy. [227] By a statute of 1863 a second marriage is valid when the first spouse has been five years absent; and such spouse is to be presumed dead in any question of alimony arising under the second marriage. ”

“ In regard to the financial side of divorce, it is to be hoped that any alimony given to an innocent wife may at least be reducible if she marries a wealthy man, and that among the poor the innocent wife will be given a far better chance of enforcing her claim for alimony than she is given now. ”

“ Where a court of one state has decreed the future payment of alimony, and when an instalment or instalments of the alimony so decreed have become due and payable and are unpaid, is such a judgment as to accrued and past-due alimony ordinarily embraced within the scope of the full faith and credit clause of the Constitution of the United States so as to impose the constitutional duty upon the court of another state to give effect to such judgment? ”

“ If she was a merchant when she married, she could still sell her goods in the open market. There could be no divorce, but only separation. If separated, she had a right to alimony from him to maintain herself. ”

“ The privileges allowed to a wife under such circumstances rest upon the facts that the separation is only grantable propter Saevitiam; that the alimony commonly allowed is no more than enough to give her a home and a scanty maintenance, almost always necessarily short of that from which her husband has driven her; and that as a consequence she should be permitted to change her domicil, where she may live upon her narrow allowance with most comfort and the least mortification. ”

“ That some direct court of appeal should exist, in which (according to Lord Thurlow's principle in graver cases) the circumstances of each case should guide its result, and the law exercise remedial control. It is vain to say, "Let the woman find sureties." Suppose her friendless; suppose her without sureties; suppose the husband to refuse all agreement. It is equally vain to say, "Let her sue for alimony;" she may not be in a position to sue for alimony:—or to say, "Let her institute proceedings for divorce against her husband;" ”

“ A wife may sue for alimony without divorce. In cases where both parties are equally at fault the court may refuse divorce but provide for the custody and maintenance of children and equitable division of property. ”

“ The person in whose favor a limited divorce has been rendered may apply and get a full divorce [71] in one year, while the adverse party must wait two years before fore he can secure a similar decree, in the meantime the wife's right to alimony remaining unimpaired. ”