If your spouse is asking for a divorce on the ground of cruel treatment, and you were mentally ill when the conduct happened, that conduct cannot support the ground.
Why Not
OCGA 19-5-3(10) defines cruel treatment as the “willful infliction of pain, bodily or mental.” Hilburn v. Hilburn, 210 Ga. 497 (1954), draws the conclusion: “it is well settled that an insane person cannot commit wilful acts which amount to cruel treatment within the meaning of our divorce statute.”
So this is not a plea for sympathy. It goes to whether a required element of the ground exists at all.
What Happened in Hilburn
Mrs. Hilburn had left her job of sixteen years because of mental illness, was in and out of private institutions, and was adjudged insane in 1946 and committed to the state hospital. She was released to a guardian four years later, still insane, and was confined again when the case was tried.
Her husband sued for divorce in two counts. The first alleged incurable insanity and was later struck. The second alleged cruel treatment. A jury gave him a divorce on the cruel treatment count.
The Georgia Supreme Court set the verdict aside. The evidence showed that the acts of cruelty he relied on “occurred, if at all, after movant became totally insane,” and she was “at the time of its commission unquestionably an insane person.”
This Is Not the Same as the Mental Illness Ground
Georgia does allow a divorce for incurable mental illness under OCGA 19-5-3(11), but only on strict proof that the statute spells out. That is a separate ground with its own requirements. Whether your illness makes your conduct something other than cruel treatment is a different question entirely, and it does not depend on any of that proof.
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This post is a quick overview of the law and is not intended as legal advice. Please feel free to contact our office for a consultation if you have questions about this or any other legal aspects regarding your case!