Note 378 — Chapter XVII · A CENTURY AND A QUARTER OF DIVORCE LEGISLATION IN THE UNITED STATES, 1776-1903 (continued 2)
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It has been decided in Kennedy v. Kennedy, 73 N. Y., 363, affirming 47 N. Y. Supr., 56, that "threats of violence of such a character as to induce a reasonable apprehension of bodily injury, and charges of infidelity, made in bad faith, as auxiliary to and in aggravation of the threatened violence, are sufficient to constitute 'cruel and inhuman treatment.'" Cf. Stover, Code of Civil Proced. (1892), II, 1639, 1640, note.
A "groundless and malicious charge against a wife's chastity, and spitting upon her are gross acts of cruelty, and words of menace accompanied by the probability of bodily violence, if they inflict indignity and threaten pain, are sufficient." See Whispell v. Whispell, 4 Barb., 217; and cf. Lutz v. Lutz, 31 N. Y. St. Rep., 718; Waltermire v. Waltermire, 110 N. Y., 183; Uhlmann v. Uhlmann, 17 Abb. N. C., 236; Mason v. Mason, 1 Edw., Ch., 278; Perry v. Perry, 2 Barb., Ch., 311.