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LONDON – This seems pretty simple: if you want to divorce, you can divorce, is not it?
In Britain, the answer is "not necessarily".
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court ruled – reluctantly, even though sorry, but unanimously – that Tini Owens, who has been trying for years to divorce, must remain in his unhappy marriage with Hugh Owens, who opposes divorce.
Owens' situation is not permanent. The law says that if a couple has lived apart for five years, a spouse can get a divorce even if the other object. Mrs. Owens will reach the five-year mark in 2020.
A 1973 law allows divorce on the grounds of adultery, abandonment or "that the respondent behaved in such a way so that the applicant can not reasonably expect to live with the "
The case is an extreme rarity, according to the states in power, because the court" has never had the # 39 "opportunity to consider" what is the threshold for "reasonably" to expect someone to remain married
. filed in England and Wales in 2016, more than 99 percent were undisputed, the court wrote in its decision. And among those who were initially challenged, only a small fraction – 17 cases in total – went to a final family court hearing
So there may be little case to follow the previous case of Owens c. Owens, but As the court noted, what is reasonable in a marriage could be considered differently now than it was 45 years ago.
Several courts heard the case along the way, and even though they ruled against Ms. Owens, they called on Britain's elected leaders to modernize the divorce law.
"Parliament may want to consider replacing a law that denies Mrs. Owens any right now to divorce" Wilson wrote for the Supreme Court.
Owens, 68, and Mr. Owens, 80, were married in 1978 and raised two children in Gloucestershire, in the west of England. According to Mrs. Owens, her husband was verbally abusive, so she moved from her mansion in 2015, and to a property next door.
But generally, little or no difference in definition of the word "reasonably". If one of the spouses claims to be unable to live with each other, the UK courts are inclined to speak out of the petitioner, especially if the divorce is undisputed.
And the Supreme Court stated in the Owens case that the legal system encourages people who seek a divorce to minimize the misconduct of their spouses, to keep things amicably when they are not. they negotiate the conditions.
The lower courts found that Ms. Owens had not submitted enough evidence that she could not reasonably live with it. her husband. The Supreme Court Justice stated that she had no reason to overturn this conclusion
Judge Brenda M. Hale, the Chairperson of the Tribunal, wrote in a separate opinion that the trial judge had misinterpreted the law, but she agreed to dismiss the case
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