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1995 SESSION
LD1297156Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:
1. That § 20-91 of the Code of Virginia is amended and reenacted as follows:
§ 20-91. Grounds for divorce from bond of matrimony.
A divorce from the bond of matrimony may be decreed:
(1) For adultery; or for sodomy or buggery committed outside the marriage;
(2) [Repealed.]
(3) Where either of the parties subsequent to the marriage has been convicted of a felony, sentenced to confinement for more than one year and confined for such felony subsequent to such conviction, and cohabitation has not been resumed after knowledge of such confinement (in which case no pardon granted to the party so sentenced shall restore such party to his or her conjugal rights); or
(4), (5) [Repealed.]
(6) Where either party has been guilty of cruelty, caused reasonable apprehension of bodily hurt, or willfully deserted or abandoned the other, such divorce may be decreed to the innocent party after a period of one year from the date of such act;
(7), (8) [Repealed.]
(9) (a) On the application of either party if and when the husband and wife
have lived separate and apart without any cohabitation and without
interruption for one year. In any case where the parties have entered
into a separation agreement and (i) there are no minor
children either born of the parties, born of either party and adopted by the
other or adopted by both parties, or (ii) there are minor children
either born of the parties, born of either party and adopted by the other or
adopted by both parties and the parties have entered into a separation
agreement, a divorce may be decreed on application if and when the
husband and wife have lived separately and apart without cohabitation and
without interruption for six months. A plea of res adjudicata or of
recrimination with respect to any other provision of this section shall not
be a bar to either party obtaining a divorce on this ground; nor shall it be
a bar that either party has been adjudged insane, either before or after such
separation has commenced, but at the expiration of one year or six months,
whichever is applicable, from the commencement of such separation, the
grounds for divorce shall be deemed to be complete, and the committee of the
insane defendant, if there be one, shall be made a party to the cause, or if
there be no committee, then the court shall appoint a guardian ad litem to
represent the insane defendant.
(b) This subdivision (9) shall apply whether the separation commenced prior to its enactment or shall commence thereafter. Where otherwise valid, any decree of divorce hereinbefore entered by any court having equity jurisdiction pursuant to this subdivision (9), not appealed to the Supreme Court of Virginia, is hereby declared valid according to the terms of said decree notwithstanding the insanity of a party thereto.
(c) A decree of divorce granted pursuant to this subdivision (9) shall in no way lessen any obligation any party may otherwise have to support the spouse unless such party shall prove that there exists in the favor of such party some other ground of divorce under this section or § 20-95.