New York court rules you can divorce if spouse refuses sex but not if spouse abandons you socially

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In Davis v. Davis, the Appellate Division, Second Judicial Department of the New York State Supreme Court, has ruled that social abandonment is not a legal cause for divorce in New York State.

Mrs. Davis had argued that her husband's refusal to  engage in social interaction with her by refusing to celebrate with her or acknowledge Valentine's Day, Christmas, Thanksgiving, and her birthday, by refusing to eat meals together, by refusing to attend family functions or accompany the wife to movies, shopping, restaurants, and church services, by leaving her once at a hospital emergency room, by removing the her belongings from the marital bedroom, among other things met the legal definition of abandonment.

The court's decision said that under New York State law, only a spouse's refusal to have sex for more than a year consitutes abandonment.

Mr. and Mrs. Davis have been married for 41 years.

The court's decision is fairly complex and covers the entire history of the legal definition of abandonment in New York State law. Click here to read the full decision.