The New York herald., 1922-03-26
By WILLIAM M'MURTRIE sPEER.


= chain Of drug stores in
- Brooklyn and valuable real
estate. When he died his widow
brought suit to establish her dover
right.
A dover right is the interest that
a married woman has in any real
estate owned by her husband and
which cannot be taken away from her
without her consent. A married man
cannot give a full title to any houses
or lots he owns unless his wife joins
in the deed. When he dies he cannot
leave all his real property to others
without making provision for his
wife and she can decide whether she
will accept the provisions of the will
or prefers her dover right
Mrs. Bancroft's suit was dismissed
by Justice Cropsey in the Brooklyn
Supreme Court because the Reno di-
vorce which Mrs. Bancroft had OBJ
tanned from her first husband be-
fore her marriage TO Mr.. Bancroft is
not recognized as valid in the State
OF New York and therefore she was
not Mr.. Bancroft's widow and had
no dover right.
This emphasizes again the danger
that many people run. women espe-
cially, in going to some other State
and getting divorce which while
valid in that State is not valid in New
York.
No Divorces for 100 Years.
It is not so many years since divorce
as ii is now practiced was unknown.
According TO Chancellor Kent there
we're no divorces at all for the first
100 years of the colony of New York.
There is only one cause for divorce
recognized in the New York courts
now. Abandonment, cruelty and other
reasons may be sufficient in this State
for q separation. but separation gives
neither party the legal right to re-
marry.
Many of the women who have gone
to Reno and secured divorces from the
Nevada courts would find that their re-
marriages would not be recognized by
the courts of this State IL the legality
were presented as a direct issue. a
New York mans wife cannot simply
go 10 some other State, stay there a
while. file 2 divorce petition. put an
advertisement in the newspapers, get
a decree from the other States court
on her husbands failure to defend and
then remarry, without taking chances
Of trouble.
In the State Of New York divorce IS
purely statutory: that is, one can be
divorced only in the way that the Law
provides.
Originally the ordinary courts nad
nothing TO do with divorce. Divorce
was not part Of the common law. civil
courts had no jurisdiction. marriage
was regarded 81 a religious institu-
ton, sacrament, and the sacramen-
tai bond could be sundered only by
the church acting through an ecclesi-
astical court. Divorce was matter
Of canon or ecclesiastical law, not OF
civil law.
once No Divorce Courts,
The United states took over the
common law Of England with the COM
mon law courts and the Court OF
Chancery: but neither of these courts
had divorce Jurisdiction. Since the
United States had no ecclesiastical
court. there were originally no divorce
courts.
The first divorces in tho United
States were by special laws. That
was the practice in England until the
passing Of the English divorce law in
1857. Parliament would grant divorces
by passing 4 law In each special case
or in a group of cases.
That was done by many legislatures
In the United States. and some legis-
latures still retain that power. The
wife of one of the earlier Presidents
of the United states obtained legis-
lative divorce from her FIRST husband.
Marriage Is not simple contract