Carbery Divorce Bill

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Court: House of Lords (Ireland)
• Judgment Date: 22 April 1920
• Date: 22 April 1920

Carbery Divorce Bill.

CARBERY DIVORCE BILL

[House of Lords.]

H. L. (Ir.)

Evidence on Commission - Attendance of witnesses dispensed with.

The House gave leave (12 March, 1920) for evidence taken on commission to be read, and dispensed with the attendance of the witnesses examined on commission.

This was a petition by Jose Baroness Carbery for a divorce a vinculo of her marriage with John Baron Carbery, of Castle Freke, County Cork.

It appeared that the petitioner wall married to the respondent in 1913. In that year they went to Nyeri Nairobi, British East Africa. The petitioner had no female attendant, and had to ride long distances, although in a delicate state of health, and her husband lost his temper on several occasions. In June of the following year she was in her father's house in London, and in the course of a dispute her husband struck her on the face. In 1915 there was a second visit to Africa, where she lived in a grass hut, and had malaria, and was attended by black boys only. In 1916 a daughter was born. In April, 1918, there was a third visit to Africa. There was a house built by that time, and the petitioner was accompanied by a maid. During the visit the petitioner and her husband had disputes, and her husband struck her several blows with a sjambok. In July, 1919, the petitioner's husband left her to go to the Continent; and, in consequence of information of her husband's adultery in Paris, she filed her petition in the Irish Courts.

The evidence showed that in September, 1919, the High Court in Ireland ordered that a commission should issue for the examination of Louis Nicollier, Caroline Mon, and Francine Chewin, and other persons, all residing in Paris; that the evidence of Leon Leoni, of Louis Nicollier, Joseph Brunner, and Joseph Coxon, Paris, was duly taken and received in evidence in the petitioner's suit for divorce. As it appeared that there were no means whereby the attendance of...