Being Denied Sex Only Once Not Grounds for Divorce in New York

New York is the last remaining U.S. jurisdiction to require fault (or living apart pursuant to a legal agreement) as a predicate for divorce but being denied sex only once does not constitute grounds for divorce, no matter how bad the marriage, a Queens judge has ruled.

"That [the plaintiff-wife] may not have made an adequate number of requests to engage in sexual relations with her husband [to establish constructive abandonment] is understandable given her allegations that he failed to provide sufficient support for the family, lacked involvement in the lives of his children, and engaged in relationships with at least one if not more women other than his wife," Justice Lebowitz wrote in X.J. v. F.J.

"However," he concluded, "as logical as her lack of desire to resume sexual relations with her husband may be in the context of her failing marriage, her testimony is fatal to her claim that she was constructively abandoned by her husband."

Read all about it in Court: One-Time Denial of Request for Sex Does Not Prove Abandonment, New York Law Journal, (10-19-2005).