New South Wales Consolidated Acts

MATRIMONIAL CAUSES ACT 1899 - SECT 52

52 Claim by husband for damages

(1) A husband may in a petition for dissolution of marriage or for judicial separation claim damages from any person on the ground of his having committed adultery with the petitioner’s wife.

(2) Every petition claiming damages shall be served on the alleged adulterer and the wife unless the Court dispenses with such service or directs some other service to be substituted.

(3) Every petition claiming damages shall be heard and tried on the same principles in the same manner and subject to the same or like rules and regulations as formerly applied to the trial and decision of actions for criminal conversation brought in the common law jurisdiction of the Supreme Court.
Provided that, subject to section sixty-nine of this Act, any issue arising upon the hearing of any such petition (including the amount of damages) may be determined by the Court.

(4) The provisions of this Act with reference to the hearing and decision of other petitions shall so far as may be necessary be deemed applicable to petitions claiming damages.