An action for separate maintenance may be maintained without request for divorce, upon any grounds which would be grounds for divorce, and in such cases the court shall have power to award temporary alimony, suit money, and permanent support for a spouse and the children of the parties, or any of them, by the other spouse.
S.D. Codified Laws § 25-4-40
Action for separate maintenance without divorce--Alimony and support
Applied in 3 court decisions — leading case Jasper v. Smith (1995)
Most recently applied in LeFORS v. LeFORS (May 2023)
Source: SDC 1939, § 14.0727; SL 1979, ch 165, § 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.