Hausberger v Hausberger [1912] ZAWLD 21 (20 June 1912)

Husband and Wife-Judicial Separation-Maintenance-When lVife entitled to.

On judicial separation the wife is ent·itled to maintenance from her husband only if he be solely to blame for the separation. In 1897 the High Court of the late S.A.R. granted
a separation between a certain husband and wife who were parties to an action for divorce
which failed. No order was made as to the maintenance of the wife. The record did not show at whose instance the separation was obtained. In 1912 the wife sued her husband for maintenance: - Held, that, in order for the wife to succeed, she must prove that the separation order had been granted solely on account of the misconduct of her husband, and that the relative circumstances of the parties differed from what they were when the separation was decreed.