ABSTRACT
Academic courses still study this Fact along with the others in s 1(2), and it remains available as the basis for proving that a marriage has irretrievably broken down despite a drop in use in recent years evidenced by the lack of up to date case law in this subparagraph. However, unless the case is extremely clear-cut and definitely will not be defended, it is rarely used in practice because of its technical requirements. Moreover, a respondent who has deserted a petitioner for two years as required for Fact C is unlikely to resist a request to consent to a divorce on the basis of Fact D (ie, the same two years’ separation plus the respondent’s consent to the decree: see Chapter 10).
