Will one of the spouses be divorced if he cheats?

Mondo Social Updated on 2024-02-28

Will one of the spouses be divorced if he cheats?

Let's start with the conclusion: if one of the spouses cheats, the court will not necessarily grant a divorce, and certain conditions need to be met.

Article 1079 of the Civil Code stipulates five types of statutory divorce: bigamy or cohabitation; committing domestic violence or abusing or abandoning family members; There are bad habits such as gambling and drug abuse, which are repeatedly taught; Separated for two years due to emotional discord; Other circumstances that lead to the breakdown of the relationship between the husband and wife. If one of these five circumstances leads to the breakdown of the relationship between the husband and wife, the court will divorce the husband and wife for the first time.

So does "cheating" fall under the category of "bigamy or cohabitation"?

"Bigamy" is relatively easy to understand, that is, the illegal act of establishing a marital relationship between a spouse and a third party, and it is more difficult to distinguish between "cohabitation" and "infidelity". According to Article 2 of the Judicial Interpretation (I) of the Civil Code on Marriage and Family issued by the Supreme People's Court, if it can be proved that the spouse and the opposite sex outside of marriage continue to live together in the name of husband and wife, it is a situation of "cohabitation with another person", and the court will find that the relationship between the husband and wife has broken down and grant the divorce.

If the spouse only commits adultery occasionally, and there is no continuous and stable cohabitation with the opposite sex outside of marriage, it can only be determined as "cheating" in the general sense, and the court may not grant divorce if the spouse sues for divorce for the first time.

Speaking of which, some people may say that the result is not the same, and even if the spouse "cheats", the court will not grant divorce. According to Article 1079, Paragraph 5 of the Civil Code, if there are "other circumstances that lead to the breakdown of the relationship between the husband and wife", such as one of the spouses who has been teaching for a long time and frequently, although it does not belong to the situation of "cohabitation with others", but in fact has caused serious harm to the feelings of the husband and wife, reaching the level of emotional breakdown, the court will still grant divorce after the first lawsuit.

In addition, even if the court does not grant divorce after the first divorce lawsuit, the parties can still wait for 6 months to sue for divorce again in accordance with article 124 of the Civil Procedure Law.

To sum up, if the spouse cheats, the parties can of course file a divorce lawsuit with the court on this ground, and if the specific conditions are met, resulting in the breakdown of the relationship between the husband and wife, the court will make a judgment to grant the divorce to both parties in accordance with the law.

Related Pages