Scottish Court of Session Decisions

This is an action of divorce by a wife against her husband on the ground of desertion. The pursuer is a native of and resides in Scotland, and the defender is a native of and resides in Holland.

The pursuer alleges that she and the defender, then a seaman on board a Dutch vessel temporarily at Sandhaven, were on the 31st of August 1854 irregularly married by appearing before a justice of the peace at Fraserburgh, and acknowledging themselves to be married persons; that on the following day she sailed with the defender on board his vessel for Dantzic; and after a year's absence from Scotland, during which they lived together and cohabited as husband and wife, they both returned to Pitullie, in the county of Aberdeen. The pursuer further alleges that after a residence there of five months she and the defender contracted a regular marriage; that the defender took a house, which was occupied by him and her for two years, “during which the defender made several voyages as a seaman in ships sailing from Fraserburgh, always returning to his house there, which he regarded as his home.” The pursuer finally alleges that in 1858 she was deserted by her husband, and that he has since then contracted a second marriage in the Netherlands. The summons was served edictally and also personally on the defender at his foreign domicile. The Lord Ordinary (Ormidale) holding the domicile of the defender to be abroad, held that the Court had no jurisdiction to entertain the action, on the general rule that a divorce a vinculo matrimonii can only be pronounced by the competent court within the jurisdiction where the parties have their domicile.

The case came up to-day on a reclaiming note for the pursuer. Before proceeding further the Court allowed the pursuer to put in a condescendence as to what she averred and offered to prove in regard to the domicile of the defender.