Legal History Commons^™

Divorce - Recrimination As A Defense

Michigan Law Review

If both parties have a right to divorce, neither party has. This judicial pronouncement, paradoxical and puzzling as it must seem, at least to the lay mind, nevertheless embodies the kernel of the doctrine of recrimination as it is applied in divorce cases by modem courts. One party seeks divorce and proves beyond doubt that he or she is entitled to relief. But, if it is found that the complaining party too, is guilty of conduct for which a divorce may be granted, the court turns a deaf ear to both. For, in the oft quoted words of Chancellor Wallworth, …