[185] This cause was added by the act of March 23, 1872: _Acts of the Assembly_ (1871-72), 418, 419.
[186] _Code of Va._ (1887), 561: _Acts of the Assembly_ (1852-53), 47, 48. The term of desertion was reduced from five to three years by _Acts_ (1893-94), 425.
In West Virginia the circuit court on its chancery side may grant total divorce for eight causes. Of these the first four are identical with the corresponding numbers for Virginia. The rest are: (5) where either party wilfully abandons or deserts the other for three years; (6 and 7) the same as the seventh and eighth for Virginia; (8) where the husband, prior to the marriage, has been, without knowledge of the wife, notoriously a licentious person--thus dealing even justice to each spouse. Furthermore, five grounds of limited divorce are there sanctioned. The first four are the same as those existing in Virginia since 1849; and in addition a fifth cause gives jurisdiction when either the husband or wife after marriage becomes a habitual drunkard.[187]
[187] _Code of West Va._ (1891), 612, 613; _ibid._ (1900), 660-62. It is provided that "a charge of prostitution made by the husband against the wife falsely shall be deemed cruel treatment, within the meaning of this section."--_Code_ (1900), 662. The penalties for bigamy do not extend to a person forming a new marriage when the husband or wife has been absent seven years and not heard from: _ibid._, 971.
Kentucky anticipated by many years the mother-commonwealth of Virginia in defining the grounds for dissolving a marriage.[188] Under the act of 1809 the several circuit courts are authorized to grant total divorce to either spouse (1) for abandonment and living in adultery, or (2) where the other has been condemned for a felony in any court of record in the United States; to the husband, when the wife has voluntarily left his bed and board for three years with the intention of abandonment; and to the wife, for treatment so cruel, barbarous, and inhuman as actually to endanger her life. To prevent too facile action of the courts, a check is devised similar to that later adopted by the English law. It is made the duty of the attorney prosecuting for the commonwealth to oppose the granting of any divorce warranted by this statute.[189] A new cause of full divorce, analogous to that allowed in some of the New England states, appears in 1812. When a man renounces the marriage agreement and refuses to live with his wife in conjugal relation "by uniting himself to any sect whose creed, rules, or doctrines require a renunciation of the marriage covenant, or forbid a man and wife to dwell and cohabit together," the aggrieved woman may have a full release; the offender is forbidden to remarry during the former's lifetime; or the wife may claim separate alimony and maintenance without divorce.[190]
