Marriage and Divorce Laws of the World Part 30

4. Husband's confirmed drunkenness.

5. Wife's habitual drunkenness.

6. Wife's pregnancy by another man.

7. Adultery on part of wife.

Plaintiff must have been a resident of the State at least one year.

LOUISIANA.

MARRIAGE.--A civil contract which may be celebrated by a minister, priest, judge or magistrate. No special form required.

Males must be at least 14 years and females 12 years. Parental consent necessary unless minor is twenty-one years of age.

The prohibited degrees of consanguinity and affinity are the same as those of all the Southern States.

CAUSES FOR DIVORCE:

1. Adultery.

2. Condemnation of either spouse for infamous offence.

3. Habitual intemperance.

4. Cruel treatment.

5. Abandonment.

6. Attempt to kill.

7. Public defamation.

8. Flight from justice.

In case of divorce on ground of adultery, the guilty party cannot marry his or her accomplice.

MAINE.

MARRIAGE.--Minimum age not fixed by statute. Parental consent necessary for males under 21 years and females under 18 years.

No special form of marriage ceremony required.

IMPEDIMENTS.--Same as those of Ma.s.sachusetts.

CAUSES FOR ABSOLUTE DIVORCE:

1. Adultery.

2. Impotency.

3. Extreme cruelty.

4. Three years' utter desertion.

5. Gross and confirmed habits of intoxication.

6. Cruel and abusive treatment.

7. When the husband being of sufficient ability, grossly, or wantonly and cruelly, refuses to provide suitable maintenance for his wife.

The procedure and effects of divorce are almost identical with those of Ma.s.sachusetts.

MARYLAND.

MARRIAGE.--The minimum age for marriage is not fixed by statute, but parental consent is required for males under 21 years and females under 16 years.

IMPEDIMENTS.--Marriage is prohibited between ascendants and descendants, and collaterally between all persons related by consanguinity and affinity as set forth in the list of impediments in the statement of the law of Ma.s.sachusetts.

Marriage is also forbidden between whites and negroes, or persons of negro descent.

FORMALITIES.--Marriage licenses are required, and a ceremonial solemnization is essential.

Marriage may be solemnized "by any minister of the Gospel, or other officer or person authorized by the laws of this State to solemnize marriage."

CAUSES FOR ABSOLUTE DIVORCE:

1. The impotence of either party at the time of the marriage.

2. Any cause which renders a marriage null _ab initio_.

3. Adultery.

4. Abandonment continued uninterruptedly for at least three years.

5. When the woman before marriage has been guilty of illicit carnal intercourse with another man, the same being unknown to her husband at the time of the marriage.

Limited divorces granted for cruelty of treatment.

All divorces are at first granted _nisi_--provisionally--to become absolute on application six months afterward.

Ma.s.sACHUSETTS.

MARRIAGE.--The minimum age for marriage is not fixed by law, but males under 21 years and females under 18 years must have parental consent.