Case ID: mass_28/html/0469-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "\n      Morton J.,", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Billings versus Billings.
    
      Oct. 11th
    
    A divorce a vinculo for the cause of adultery was decreed, where the only evidence of the crime was the confession of the guilty party, there being no reason to suspect collusion.
    On a libel for a divorce a vinculo on account of adultery committed by the husband, it was proved that the husband had been out of the commonwealth and separated from his wife for fourteen years, and it appeared by his own confessions, contained in a letter in which he expressed his penitence and desired a reconciliation with his wife, that he had been living with another woman, by whom he had five children.
   Morton J.,

before whom the trial took place, said he had advised with the other judges on the question, whether the libellee’s confessions of adultery were alone sufficient evidence to authorize a decree of divorce ; that the reason for requiring other evidence is, in general, to prevent collusion ; that the circumstances here proved by other evidence than the confessions showed there could be no collusion ; and that all the Court were of opinion that the proof of the adultery was sufficient.

Divorce decreed.