Divorces may be granted for any of the following causes:
(1) Adultery;
(2) Extreme cruelty;
(3) Willful desertion;
(4) Willful neglect;
(5) Habitual intemperance;
(6) Conviction of felony;
(7) Irreconcilable differences.
S.D. Codified Laws § 25-4-2
Grounds for divorce
Applied in 10 court decisions — leading case Christians v. Christians (2001)
Most recently applied in Dunham v. Sabers (October 2022)
Source: SDC 1939, § 14.0703 (1) to (6); SL 1985, ch 207, § 3.
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: South Dakota Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain South Dakota statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.