ASSEMBLY, No. 2547

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

INTRODUCED DECEMBER 5, 1996

By Assemblywoman CRECCO

An Act to eliminate no-fault divorce and amending N.J.S.2A:34-2.

    Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

    1. N.J.S. 2A:34-2 is amended to read as follows:

    2A:34-2. Causes for divorce from bond of matrimony

    Divorce from the bond of matrimony may be adjudged for the following causes heretofore or hereafter arising:

    a. Adultery;

    b. Willful and continued desertion for the term of 12 or more months, which may be established by satisfactory proof that the parties have ceased to cohabit as man and wife;

    c. Extreme cruelty, which is defined as including any physical or mental cruelty which endangers the safety or health of the plaintiff or makes it improper or unreasonable to expect the plaintiff to continue to cohabit with the defendant; provided that no complaint for divorce shall be filed until after 3 months from the date of the last act of cruelty complained of in the complaint, but this provision shall not be held to apply to any counterclaim;

    d. [Separation, provided that the husband and wife have lived separate and apart in different habitations for a period of at least 18 or more consecutive months and there is no reasonable prospect of reconciliation; provided, further that after the 18-month period there shall be a presumption that there is no reasonable prospect of reconciliation] Deleted by amendment, P.L. , c. (now pending before the Legislature as this bill)

    e. Voluntarily induced addiction or habituation to any narcotic drug as defined in the New Jersey Controlled Dangerous Substances Act, P.L.1970, c. 226 or habitual drunkenness for a period of 12 or more consecutive months subsequent to marriage and next preceding the filing of the complaint;

    f. Institutionalization for mental illness for a period of 24 or more consecutive months subsequent to marriage and next preceding the filing of the complaint;

    g. Imprisonment of the defendant for 18 or more consecutive months after marriage, provided that where the action is not commenced until after the defendant's release, the parties have not resumed cohabitation following such imprisonment;

    h. Deviant sexual conduct voluntarily performed by the defendant without the consent of the plaintiff.

(cf:P.L.1971, c.217, s.11)

    2. This act shall take effect on the 30th day after enactment and shall apply to all separations which commence on or after the effective date.

STATEMENT

    This bill eliminates the 18 month separation as a ground for divorce, the so-called no-fault provision. Divorces would be granted on any of the other grounds set forth in N.J.S. 2A:34-2 but subsection d., the 18 month separation provision, would be eliminated by this bill.

Eliminates no-fault divorce.