P v P (High Court Civil Cause 16 of 1939) [1939] ZMHCNR 23 (31 December 1939) | Divorce | Esheria

P v P (High Court Civil Cause 16 of 1939) [1939] ZMHCNR 23 (31 December 1939)

Full Case Text

[Vol. II P. v. P. High Court Civil Cause No. 16 of 1939. Shortening of time for decree absolute-public policy. The facts and law in this application appear from the judgment hereunder. The period between the pronouncing of a decree nisi and its being made absolute is now three months unless the Court shall fix a shorter time. R obin son , J . This is an application for shortening the time between decree nisi and decree absolute. The woman named in the petition is about to be delivered o f a child, the father being the respondent. It is desired that the decree absolute should be forwarded in order that the woman named and the respondent may be free to marry and the child may be born legitimate instead of a bastard. In my opinion that is in the interests o f public policy and that same view is held by the Courts in England with the result that these applications are usually granted— see Rayden and Mortimer, 3rd Ed., p. 4281 and Halsbury (Halisham), Vol. 10, p. 828. The only case which at first sight presents any difficulty is that o f P. v. P. (1927), 44, T. L. R. 114, where a petitioning wife’s appli­ cation to expedite the hearing so that the decree might be made absolute and the husband enabled to marry the woman named in the petition before the birth o f a child expected to be bom to the woman as a result o f her relations with the husband was refused as being against public policy. But in that case the application was to expedite the hearing and it may well have been argued (unfortunately the report is not available) that if it was granted the Court at the hearing might be biased on the big point which the petitioner had to prove, namely the adultery o f the husband respondent. I grant this application, the King’s Proctor consenting, and order that the period between decree nisi and decree absolute be shortened to two months and twenty-five days as prayed. Costs in the cause. 1 See now Rayden on Divorce, 6th Edition, pp. 611 e t s e q .—E d ito r.