Case Name: Backus, libellant, vs. Backus
Court: Maine Supreme Judicial Court
Jurisdiction: Maine
Decision Date: 1824-06
Citations: 3 Me. 136
Docket Number: 
Parties: Backus, libellant, vs. Backus.
Judges: 
Reporter: Maine Reports
Volume: 3
Pages: 136–136

Head Matter:
Backus, libellant, vs. Backus.
In a libel for divorce a vinculo for adultery, proof that the injured party has forgiven the offence by subsequent cohabitation with the offender, may be given in evidence under a general traverse of the facts alleged in the libel.
This was a libel by the wife for divorce a vinculo, for the adultery of the husband; who answered by a general traverse of the matters and things alleged in the libel. The fact of the adultery having been proved, Orr, for the respondent, offered to show that the wife, after knowledge of the offence, had cohabited with the husband, and had children by him, forgiving the injury he had done her. To which Sprague, for the libellant, objected that as the evidence went to justify the offence, or at least to excuse it, the matter should have been specially pleaded.

Opinion:
But the Court
overruled the objection, observing that such evidence had always been heard in any stage of the cause, and even after a default.