In the judgment I ACa 100/21, the Court of Appeal in Kraków ruled that in order to determine the fault of the spouse who was not found guilty of the breakdown of the marriage in the earlier case of the parties for separation, it is not enough to prove his passivity in subsequent behavior, understood as lack of activities aimed at restoring broken marital ties.
This order was issued by a court hearing an appeal against a divorce decree of a married couple who had been separated prior to the commencement of the divorce case. Separation was ordered due to the sole fault of the husband (the claimant in the divorce case), who, without good reason, moved out of the apartment he shared with his wife and children and maintained close contacts with other women. After the separation, the parties did not maintain any contact with each other, and the husband became permanently involved with another woman and moved in with her. After several years of separation, the husband filed for divorce. The court granted the divorce on the sole fault of the plaintiff, arguing that since the formal separation of the parties, he had not taken any steps to save the marriage and had been in relationships with other women. The plaintiff appealed against the judgment.
The appellate court rejected most of the plaintiff’s allegations regarding irregularities in determining guilt by the court of first instance, but admitted the plaintiff was right in the claim that the fact that the parties were separated due to the plaintiff’s fault does not mean that the divorce was also due to the plaintiff’s fault. In order to finally determine the fault in the breakdown of the marriage, it is necessary to assess the behavior of the parties after the separation. It cannot be ruled out that the spouse found solely to blame for the breakdown of the marriage in a separation case, after its ruling, tries to rebuild the broken marriage ties, while the other spouse behaves culpably. However, the court found that such a situation did not occur in the case in question – the sole fault of the husband was evidenced by the fact that after the separation, he did not change his behavior, still remaining in relationships with other women and did not take actions that would imply that he was trying to renew reestablish broken marriage ties.
According to the Court of Appeal, in order to determine the guilt of the spouse who was not found guilty of the breakdown of the marriage in the earlier case of the parties for separation, it is not enough to prove his passivity in later behavior, understood as the lack of activity aimed at restoring broken marital bonds, in order to determine the fault of the spouse in a divorce case. On the basis of the discussed case, the defendant cannot be blamed for the breakdown of the marriage solely on the basis of her failure to rebuild the relationship with her husband, who did not change his behavior after the separation, remained in a relationship with another woman and lived with her all the time. In turn, the defendant, despite the fact that her relationship was separated, remained loyal to the plaintiff and did not enter into extramarital relations.
To sum up: when ruling on the fault of the breakdown of life in a divorce judgment, one cannot automatically assign blame to the spouse who was found solely guilty in the separation case, but one must assess the behavior of the parties after the separation has been issued. However, the lack of efforts to rebuild the relationship by the spouse previously found innocent cannot constitute an independent basis for assigning blame to him for the breakdown of the marriage in the divorce judgment.