Recrimination

In the law of divorce. The defense that the plaintiff has been guilty of such a matrimonial offense as is a ground for divorce. At common law only an offense of the same nature as that for which plaintiff sued was available in recrimination (1 Hagg. Consist. 144; 4 Ecc. 360); but in the United States, the courts refuse, in the absence of statute, to measure the comparative turpitude of the several statutory grounds of divorce, and any one may be pleaded in recrimination (21 N. J. Eq. 331; 72 Wis. 136). Recrimination is based on the maxim that suitors in equity must come with clean hands, and, if established, is a complete defense. RECTE (Lat.) In the civil law.

Rightly. Dig. 50. 16. 73.

As to the interpretation of this word, see Id.