| (a) | Adultery - adultery may be proven by circumstantial evidence. Engaging in sexual relations following separation still constitutes adultery. If you embrace your spouse after learning of the adultery, you have condoned the adultery and cannot thereafter rely upon it as a ground for the divorce. The sexual relations must be consensual and with knowledge of prior adultery. Mere suspicion of adultery is insufficient. |
| |
| (b) | Inappropriate marital conduct (which may also be referred to as "cruel and inhuman treatment") - proof of cruel and inhumane treatment is not limited to acts of physical violence. It includes a willful, persistent course of abusive and humiliating treatment, false charges of adultery, continual use of profane language, along with other misconduct; excessive and abusive domination and control over one's spouse, resulting in extreme and severe mental pain, anxiety and fear; and spending a lot of time away from home, abandoning the marriage bed since wife's second pregnancy, and engaging in course, crude, abusive language and physical abuse. Cruel and inhuman treatment is also a ground for a legal separation. |
| |
| (c) | Willful or malicious desertion for one (1) full year without a reasonable cause - if your spouse is willfully absent for one (1) year without reasonable cause, you may obtain a divorce. It is not a ground for divorce for one spouse to leave the company of the other based upon their conduct or behavior which would be considered a ground for divorce. Refusing the other spouse's offer of reconciliation constitutes desertion unless you are living apart under an order for separate maintenance. |
| |
| (d) | Conviction of a felony - the conviction need not be in Tennessee, but must be considered a felony in the state of conviction. T.C.A. §40-20-112 states that conviction of a felony renders the Defendant infamous. Mere conviction is not enough; confinement is also required. |
| |
| (e) | Pregnancy of the wife by another - before the marriage without the husband's knowledge. |
| |
| (f) | Willful refusal to move to Tennessee with your spouse and living apart for two (2) years - if one spouse refuses to move to Tennessee with his or her spouse, without reasonable cause, and willfully absents himself/herself for two (2) years, the spouse in Tennessee may sue for divorce. To make out a cause of willful refusal to move, you must show an effort to encourage the absent spouse to move to Tennessee. |
| |
| (g) | Attempt upon the life of the other - attempting to kill one's spouse, by poison or any other means showing malice, is a ground for divorce. The court will imply malice where the act is committed deliberately and is likely to result in death or dangerous consequences to the victim. |
| |
| (h) | Impotency and sterility - if either party, at the time of the marriage, was and is naturally impotent and incapable of procreation, then divorce may be obtained by the other party. Impotency that occurs after the marriage is not a ground for divorce. Impotency is not a ground for divorce unless it is incurable. Temporary or curable impotency may not be a ground for divorce unless the party refuses to submit to treatment. |
| |
| (i) | Bigamy - Bigamy is a ground for divorce even though the marriage is void from the inception since the parties are not validly married, regardless of whether or not a divorce is granted. The rationale for allowing a divorce on the ground of bigamy is to clean up the public record of the invalid marriage. |
| |
| (j) | Living separately and apart for two (2) years with no minor children - if you have been separated for a continuous period of two (2) or more years, have lived in separate residences, have not cohabited as man and wife during such period, and have no minor children, either may obtain a divorce even over the objection of the other party. |
| |
| (k) | Habitual drunkenness or abuse of narcotic drugs that has worsened since the marriage - if your spouse engages in habitual drunkenness, or abuse of narcotic drugs and such habit was contracted after the marriage, you may obtain a divorce. However, this ground is not available where you knew of the drug or alcohol problem prior to entering into the marriage. |
| |
| (l) | Abandonment - if the husband or wife has abandoned the spouse or turned the spouse out of doors, for no just cause and has refused or neglected to provide for the spouse while having the ability to so provide, this is a ground for divorce. Generally, a spouse is not justified in leaving the other spouse, unless the conduct of the other spouse constitutes grounds for divorce. |
| |
| (m) | Lack of reconciliation for a continuous period of two (2) years after the entry of a decree of separate maintenance, legal separation - this makes it easy for spouses to obtain a divorce when they have been separated for at least 2 years and wish to be divorced without making any harmful allegations against one another. |