Paris Divorces

The Inside Story of the Paris Divorce Mill, by one Frazier Hunt, is the leading article in the current Hearst's International. In it, the author tells how "a squat fat French legal man, the sign on whose door read: "Divorce Judgments in 1 1/2 Months," promised him for two thousand francs ($100) a divorce in from four to six weeks "if his wife made no fuss." When Mr. Hunt stated that his wife was in the U. S., the lawyer replied: "As far as your wife is concerned, we will simply get her a fake certificate of domicile."

The French law grants a divorce on the grounds of adultery, cruelty and conviction for an infamous crime punishable by imprisonment. (The inclusion of cruelty as a ground for divorce is an echo of Napoleon's troubles with Josephine.) The interpretation by the French courts of what constitutes cruelty is what has opened wide the door to marital freedom. It includes insults such as the failure to resume or continue marital relations.

The French courts will assume jurisdiction when the parties are domiciled in France. There are no requirements as to the length of residence necessary after domicile is acquired before divorce proceedings can be brought. The publication of anything but the final decree is prohibited by law.

Approximately 100 Americans every year obtain French divorces. Mr. Hunt outlines as follows the steps taken by the American woman wishing a Paris divorce:

1) She gets on a boat and comes to France.

2) She puts her case in the hands of any one of a score of American divorce lawyer experts.

3) A certificate of domicile is secured either from the address where the petitioner is actually residing or from some purely fake residence . With this in hand it is usually the custom to secure from the police a card of identity so that the proper identification of the party is doubly assured.

4) Through a huissier, a process server, an official notification of the divorce proceedings is presented at the domicile of the defendant. In the usual American case he is asked return to the wife, and it is this written refusal which constitutes the injure grave, or grave insult upon which the later action is taken. This is legally termed "refus de reintegrer le domicile conjugal," or a refusal to return to the conjugal domicile.

5) The petition for divorce is presened to the President of the Court in secret chamber. This action is known as the "premiere comparution."

6) The President, or judge, then calls for a reconciliation at which the petitioner must be present and alone face the judge in secret. At this reconciliation the letter from the defendant refusing to return to the conjugal roof is read, proving that any conciliation is impossible.

7) A few days later judgment of divorce is "permitted" by the court.

8) Decree is filed with the maire or registrar in the district where the petitioner is domiciled, within two months after the decree becomes final. The Situation. The extent, particularly with respect to property questions, to which these so-called Paris divorces will be recognized in the U. S. is still an open question. A U. S. Court has never determined whether, upon the subsequent remarriage of a man or woman divorced in Paris, the children of such second marriage would be legitimate so far as inheriting property under a will or deed of trust is involved. Edith Kelly Gould, second wife of Frank Gould, attacked in New York, on the ground of lack of jurisdiction by the French Courts, the divorce which her husband had obtained in Paris. This divorce was sustained, but the question is not considered closed. That there should be a doubt of the validity in the U. S. of Paris divorces is not surprising, in view of the conditions of the U.S. law.

Says Milton Ives Livy in his thoughtful brochure, Marriage and Divorce:

"We thus have prevailing in the United States a system of laws which allows of parties being divorced in one state but not in another; of a marriage being valid in one state but invalid elsewhere; of a child being a lawful heir in one and illegitimate in another; and of a man, not a Mormon, having two legal wives, changing one or the other according as he moves from one state to another, and which as we have seen, operates to make those entirely innocent the principle sufferers."

The Remedy. The commission on uniform laws (TIME, Dec. 22) has never drafted a uniform divorce law. There have, from time to time, however, been vigorous campaigns to obtain an Amendment to the Constitution and a uniform Federal divorce law. The Pictorial Review recently conducted such a campaign and obtained in behalf of its proposed Federal law the support of many women's organizations and prominent individuals.