FRANCIS THOMAS, ESQUIRE, GOVERNOR.

1841.

which shall he held next thereafter, unless sooner dissolved
in manner aforesaid.

CHAP. 262.

CHAPTER 262.

An act to give to the Chancellor and the County Courts as
Courts of Equity, jurisdiction in cases of Divorce.

Passed March
1, 1842.

Section 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of
Maryland, That from and after the passage of this act, the
chancellor or any county court of this State as a court of
equity, shall have jurisdiction of all applications for divorces
and any person desiring a divorce shall file his or her peti-
tion or bill to the chancellor or in the county court as a court
of equity, where the party resides against whom the peti-
tion is filed, or if the party against whom the petition is filed,
be a non resident, then such petition may be filed in the high
court of chancery or county court as a court of equity
where the petitioner resides, and upon such petition the
same process by summons, notice or otherwise, shall be had
to procure the answer and appearance of a defendant as is
now had to a bill in chancery, and in all cases where, from
the default of the defendant a bill in chancery might be taken
pro confesso, the county court as a court of equity or chan-
cellor on a petition for a divorce shall order a commission
to take testimony to issue exparte, and shall decide the case
upon the proof taken under such commission.

Chancellor
and county
court to have
jurisdiction.

Sec. 2. And be it enacted, That upon the hearing of any
petition for a divorce, the chancellor or the county court as
a court of equity, as the case may be, may decree a divorce
a vinculo matrimonii, for the following causes, to wit: first,
the impotence of either party at the time of the marriage;
secondly, for any cause which by the laws of this State ren-
ders a marriage null and void ab initio; thirdly, for adultery;
fourthly, where the party complained against has abandon-
ed the party complaining, and has remained absent from the
State for five years,

Causes for
which di-
vorce may be
granted.

Sec. 3. And be it enacted, That upon such petitions as
aforesaid, divorces, a mensa et thoro, may be decreed for
the following causes, to wit: first, cruelty of treatment; se-
condly, excessively vicious conduct, abandonment and de-
sertion, and the chancellor or any county court, as a court
of equity, may degree a divorce, a mensa et thoro, in cases
where a divorce a vinculo matrimonii is prayed, if the causes
19*

Chancellor
or county
court may di-
vorce.