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Page 1, line 20, at end insert:
("Provided that where the ground of action is incurable insanity the Court shall not be bound to grant a decree of divorce if in the opinion of the Court the pursuer has during the marriage been guilty of such wilful neglect or misconduct as has conduced to the insanity.
(2) For the purposes of paragraph (d) of the foregoing subsection the defender's guilt of sodomy or bestiality shall be held to be proved if an extract of a conviction therefor in any part of the United Kingdom is produced, and the application of such conviction to the defender is admitted or proved.")
LORD ALNESSMy Lords, I beg to move that this House doth agree with the Commons in their Amendment. This Amendment adds to Clause 1 in the first place a proviso, and in the second place a new subsection. The proviso empowers the Court to refuse decree of divorce on the ground of insanity if the pursuer's conduct towards the defender has been a contributing cause of the insanity. That seems to me a not unreasonable provision. With regard to the new subsection, it provides that in an action based on unnatural offences the defender's guilt can be proved by an extract of his conviction. It would seem otiose that where a man had been convicted of a crime in a criminal court it should be necessary that his guilt should be proved again in divorce proceedings.
§ Moved, That this House doth agree with the Commons in the said Amendment.—(Lord Alness.)
§ On Question, Motion agreed to.