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Grounds For Divorce - Living Separate Pursuant to Separation Judgment

The Domestic Relations Law provides, in Section 170(5), that an action may be maintained by a husband or wife to procure a judgment divorcing the parties and dissolving the marriage where the parties have lived separate and apart pursuant to a decree or judgment of separation for a period of one or more years after the granting of such decree or judgment, and satisfactory proof has been submitted by the plaintiff that he or she has substantially performed all the terms and conditions of such decree or judgment. This is called "conversion divorce" because it converts a judgment of legal separation into a final judgment of divorce.

The conversion ground is subject to two limitations: (1) the separation pursuant to the decree of legal separation must have been for the designated period (two or more years before Sept. 1, 1972, one or more years thereafter); and (2) the plaintiff seeking the conversion must submit satisfactory proof that he or she has "substantially" performed the terms and conditions of the separation decree. It should be noted that the traditional divorce defenses, such as recrimination, condonation, and connivance, do not apply to the conversion ground.