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Article: Desertion
- Article from:
- West's Encyclopedia of American Law
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 The Gale Group, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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DESERTION
The act by which a person abandons and forsakes, without justification, a condition of public, social, or family life, renouncing its responsibilities and evading its duties. A willful
abandonment
of an employment or duty in violation of a legal or moral obligation.
Criminal desertion is a husband's or wife's abandonment or willful failure without
just cause
to provide for the care, protection, or support of a spouse who is in ill health or necessitous circumstances.
Desertion, which is called abandonment in some statutes, is a divorce ground in a majority of states. Most statutes mandate that the abandonment continue for a certain period of time before a divorce action may ...