Bailey v. Bailey
243 N.C. 412, 1956 N.C. LEXIS 346, 90 S.E.2d 696 (1956)
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Rule of Law:
A spouse can be guilty of constructive abandonment if they compel their partner to leave the marital home through cruel treatment. Such treatment can include permitting, encouraging, and condoning persistent abuse of one's spouse by third parties, such as adult children, as this breaches the duty to protect one's spouse from insult and abuse.
Facts:
- On November 15, 1947, the plaintiff, a widow, and the defendant, a widower, were married; both had adult children from previous marriages.
- For several years leading up to May 1954, the defendant permitted, encouraged, and condoned his grown children to be constantly present in the marital home in a drunken condition.
- The defendant's children would curse, abuse, and harass the plaintiff at all hours of the day and night.
- The plaintiff did not provoke or cause this behavior.
- On May 21, 1954, the defendant ordered the plaintiff to remove her belongings from his house, stating he wanted the room for his children's use.
- Following this event, the plaintiff left the home, and the defendant failed to provide her with any subsistence or financial support.
Procedural Posture:
- The plaintiff wife instituted an action against the defendant husband in a North Carolina trial court, seeking alimony without divorce.
- Based on affidavits derived from the parties' pleadings, the trial court judge found facts supporting the plaintiff's claim of abandonment and indignities.
- The trial court entered an order requiring the defendant to pay the plaintiff subsistence and expenses pendente lite (during the litigation).
- The defendant, as appellant, appealed the trial court's order to the Supreme Court of North Carolina.
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Issue:
Does a husband's conduct of permitting and encouraging his adult children to constantly curse, abuse, and harass his wife, culminating in an order for her to remove her belongings from the home, constitute constructive abandonment that would entitle the wife to alimony without divorce?
Opinions:
Majority - Parker, J.
Yes, such conduct constitutes constructive abandonment. A husband abandons his wife not only by physically leaving but also by compelling her to leave through cruel treatment. Allowing one's children to constantly abuse and harass a spouse, and failing to protect her from this treatment, is a form of cruelty that can render her condition intolerable. The court reasoned that a husband has a legal duty to protect his wife from insult and abuse, regardless of the source. If he cannot control his children's conduct, he is obligated to provide his wife with a home free from their abuse. The defendant's failure in this duty, combined with his order for the plaintiff to remove her belongings, constituted cruel treatment that forced her to leave, legally amounting to abandonment on his part.
Analysis:
This decision clarifies and expands the doctrine of constructive abandonment within family law. It establishes that abandonment is not limited to physical departure but can be established by conduct that makes the marital home uninhabitable for a spouse. The case is significant for recognizing non-physical, psychological cruelty—specifically, the failure to protect a spouse from abuse by family members—as a valid ground for abandonment. This precedent broadens the scope of marital fault, allowing spouses who are forced out by intolerable conditions to seek remedies like alimony, even if they are the ones who physically leave the home.
