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Reports of Cases in the High Court of Chancery of Maryland 1846-1854
Volume 200, Volume 2, Page 320   View pdf image (33K)
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320 HIGH COURT OF CHANCERY.
their meaning in terms free from all ambiguity. The original
act required such absence to continue for five years, and this
period, the legislature, in 1844, thought proper to abridge, but
it is not manifest they intended to dispense with it altogether.
It has been asked, why it was put in the original act ? This
is a question which this court cannot answer, but finding it
there, it must pay respect to it, as one of the circumstances
constituting cause for a divorce a vinculo matrimonii, until the
authority which placed it there strikes it out, which I am not
satisfied, entirely, they intended to do, by the act of 1844.
This construction of these acts, seems to me, in conformity
with what I understand to be the opinion delivered by one, at
least, of the judges of the Court of Appeals, in the case of Ben-
guyn vs. Benguyn, decided at December term, 1846, and the
opinions of the other judges, do not, in any manner, conflict
with it. ,
The party complained against, then, in this case, not having
been absent from the state for any period, it may be doubted,
whether, upon the true construction of the acts of assembly
upon the subject, an absolute divorce could be decreed.
There is, however, another objection to the interposition of
the court in this case, which renders it unnecessary to place
the decree about to be passed, upon the ground that the facts
alleged, and proved, do not bring this case within the provisions
of the acts. The parties, we have seen, on the 18th of April
last, executed a deed of separation, by which, provision was
made for the support of the wife and children, and by which,
these parties mutually agreed, during their joint lives, to live
separate and apart from each other. This deed, so long as
the terms of it are complied with on the part of the husband,
exonerates him from the obligation to support his wife, and is
a protection against any claim which can be made upon him for
supplying her, even with necessaries. 2 Kent's Com., 161 ;
Todd vs. Stokes, 1 Salk., 116; Nurse vs. Craig, 5 Bos. & Pul.,
148; Baker vs. Barney, 8 Johns. Rep., 77.
Having selected their own remedy by the execution of this
deed, after the actual separation had lasted nearly or quite ten

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Reports of Cases in the High Court of Chancery of Maryland 1846-1854
Volume 200, Volume 2, Page 320   View pdf image (33K)
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