## Facts

- Husband filed for divorce in Delaware on the statutory ground of incompatibility under 13 Del. C. § 1522(12).
- After a first trial, the court denied the divorce for failure to prove there was no reasonable possibility of reconciliation.
- The Supreme Court reversed on other grounds and remanded for a new trial.
- At the second trial, the parties agreed incompatibility would be decided on the first-trial record; only the likelihood of reconciliation would be evaluated based on circumstances at the time of the second trial.
- By the second trial, the spouses had lived apart for nearly 18 months.
- Their relationship included repeated violent quarrels requiring police and Family Court involvement on numerous occasions.
- A Family Court judge had stated that the marriage was finished and the parties were incompatible.
- Undisputed evidence showed severe mutual misconduct, including attempted stabbing and poisoning attributed to Wife, and repeated assaults and threats attributed to Husband.
- On reconciliation, Husband testified reconciliation was impossible; Wife responded she did not know whether reconciliation could occur.

## Issues

1. Whether the trial court clearly erred in finding a reasonable possibility of reconciliation at the time of the second trial, thereby denying a divorce on incompatibility.

## Decision

- The Delaware Supreme Court reversed.
- The court held the trial court’s finding that Husband failed to show no reasonable possibility of reconciliation was clearly erroneous on the undisputed record at the time of the second trial.
- The case was remanded with directions to grant a decree of divorce.

## Legal Principles

- Under Delaware’s incompatibility ground for divorce, the court must determine both (1) incompatibility and (2) whether there is no reasonable possibility of reconciliation.
- The reconciliation determination is governed by the facts and circumstances existing at the time of trial.
- An appellate court may reverse a trial court’s reconciliation finding as clearly erroneous when the undisputed evidence overwhelmingly shows reconciliation is not reasonably possible.

## Conclusion

Because the record as of the second trial showed a prolonged separation, repeated state intervention, severe violence and threats, and no meaningful indication that reconciliation remained reasonably possible, the Supreme Court ordered that a divorce be granted on the ground of incompatibility.


Husband W. v. Wife W., 297 A.2d 39 (Del. 1972)