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R.I. Gen. Laws § 15-5-2

Additional grounds for divorce

Applied in 2 court decisions — leading case Ladner v. Ladner (1983)

Most recently applied in 201 W. Va. 381 - Michael D.C. v. Wanda L.C. (October 1997)

G.L. 1896, ch. 195, § 2; P.L. 1902, ch. 971, § 1; G.L. 1909, ch. 247, § 2; G.L. 1923, ch. 291, § 2; G.L. 1938, ch. 416, § 2; G.L. 1956, § 15-5-2; P.L. 1975, ch. 287, § 1.

Divorces from the bond of marriage shall also be decreed for the following causes:

(1) Impotency;

(2) Adultery;

(3) Extreme cruelty;

(4) Willful desertion for five (5) years of either of the parties, or for willful desertion for a shorter period of time in the discretion of the court;

(5) Continued drunkenness;

(6) The habitual, excessive, and intemperate use of opium, morphine, or chloral;

(7) Neglect and refusal, for the period of at least one year next before the filing of the petition, on the part of the husband to provide necessaries for the subsistence of his wife, the husband being of sufficient ability; and

(8) Any other gross misbehavior and wickedness, in either of the parties, repugnant to and in violation of the marriage covenant.

Official source: Rhode Island General Assembly. Reproduced from public-domain Rhode Island statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.