In North Carolina, the complainant seeking a divorce from bed and board must establish at least one of the six fault grounds enumerated in the statute: abandonment, malicious turning out of doors, cruel or barbarous treatment, indignities, excessive use of alcohol or drugs rendering the condition of the other spouse intolerable, or adultery.
Here are the legal definitions for those fault grounds for divorce from bed and board as far as they apply to North Carolina.
Abandonment: The act of one spouse willfully ending cohabitation without the consent of the other spouse
Malicious turning out of doors: A sub-set of willful abandonment and is proved by the same basic facts. Essentially, it means one spouse has been either emotionally or physically abandoned.
Cruel or barbarous treatment: This is treatment by one spouse that endangers the life of the other. It includes mental and emotional cruelty, as well as physical.
Indignities: By definition, it is treatment or circumstances that cause one to feel shame or to a lack of dignity. Within the context of divorce from bed and board, it is viewed as one spouse’s malicious behavior with the intention to belittle or humiliate the other.
Excessive use of alcohol or drugs: This fault ground sometimes includes the phrase “and life burdensome” for the affected spouse. It is meant to designate that the usage of drugs and alcohol by one spouse has lead to issues in the marriage for the spouse who is not using.
Adultery: Legally defined as, “If any man and woman, not being married to each other, shall lewdly and lasciviously associate, bed and cohabit together”, with either party being married to another person at the time of the act.
Further, the complainant must allege that he or she did not provoke the other spouse’s misconduct. The right to jury trial in an action for divorce from bed and board is governed by the statutory provision permitting a jury to make the factual findings on issues of fault.
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