Condonation—a defense to divorce in Mississippi?
The “I forgive you” defense
The second, and most commonly used, defense to a fault-based divorce is condonation. Essentially, it means forgiveness. The Mississippi Supreme Court explained condonation as:
“forgiveness of a martial offense theretofore committed, on condition that it will not be repeated and that the offender will thereafter treat the forgiving party with conjugal kindness. So long as the offending spouse observes the conditions on which the condonation rests, the unoffending spouse may not complain of the condoned offense.”
Lee v. Lee, 232 So.2d 370, 373 (Miss. 1970)
The Supreme Court likened it to placing the offending spouse on probation. As long as the offending spouse did not act up again, then the innocent spouse could not complain. However, if the offending spouse was guilty of some other marital offense following the forgiveness, then the probation was essentially revoked, the innocent spouse could file for divorce, and bring up all the acts that were previously forgiven.
In my next post, I will talk about the actual application of this defense to certain cases.
