The plaintiff in an action for divorce or separate maintenance must, at the time the action is commenced, be a resident of this state, or be stationed in this state while a member of the armed services. Subsequently, the plaintiff need not maintain that residence or military presence to be entitled to the entry of a decree or judgment of divorce or separate maintenance.
S.D. Codified Laws § 25-4-30
Residence requirements for divorce or separate maintenance
Applied in 6 court decisions — leading case Langdeau v. Langdeau (2008)
Most recently applied in Lapin v. Zeetogroup (July 2025)
Source: SDC 1939, § 14.0720; SL 1961, ch 53; SDCL § 25-4-32; SL 1974, ch 174, § 1; SL 2008, ch 121, § 1.
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.