Section 200. Action for separation  


Latest version.
  • An action may be maintained by a husband
      or  wife  against  the other party to the marriage to procure a judgment
      separating the parties from bed and board, forever,  or  for  a  limited
      time, for any of the following causes:
        1.  The  cruel and inhuman treatment of the plaintiff by the defendant
      such that the conduct of the defendant  so  endangers  the  physical  or
      mental  well being of the plaintiff as renders it unsafe or improper for
      the plaintiff to cohabit with the defendant.
        2. The abandonment of the plaintiff by the defendant.
        3. The neglect or refusal of the defendant-spouse to provide  for  the
      support of the plaintiff-spouse where the defendant-spouse is chargeable
      with  such  support  under  the provisions of section thirty-two of this
      chapter or of section four hundred twelve of the family court act.
        4. The commission of an act of adultery by the defendant; except where
      such offense is committed by the procurement or with the  connivance  of
      the  plaintiff  or  where there is voluntary cohabitation of the parties
      with the knowledge of the offense or  where  action  was  not  commenced
      within  five  years  after the discovery by the plaintiff of the offense
      charged or where the plaintiff has also been guilty  of  adultery  under
      such  circumstances  that  the  defendant  would  have been entitled, if
      innocent, to a divorce, provided that adultery for the purposes of  this
      subdivision  is  hereby  defined  as  the commission of an act of sexual
      intercourse, oral sexual conduct or  anal  sexual  conduct,  voluntarily
      performed by the defendant, with a person other than the plaintiff after
      the  marriage  of  plaintiff and defendant. Oral sexual conduct and anal
      sexual conduct include, but  are  not  limited  to,  sexual  conduct  as
      defined  in  subdivision  two of section 130.00 and subdivision three of
      section 130.20 of the penal law.
        5. The confinement of the defendant in prison for a period of three or
      more consecutive years after the marriage of plaintiff and defendant.